Eclipse syntax highlighting preferences save and restore
I spend some time customizing the colors for syntax highlighting in Eclipse (Java, JSP, HTML, CSS, etc.) but whenever I try to export these settings via File|Export|General|Preferences and reimport them, the settings never completely get imported back. Some colors are restored and others are left unchanged, leaving me in an 'in between' state - very frustrating.
I'm using Eclipse 3.4 Ganymede, by the way.
Has anyone found a reliable way to save and restore Eclipse syntax highlighting settings?
Solution 1:
I finally figured out how to do this.
I just wanted to mention beforehand that I did try to start with a fresh Eclipse install, export the preferences to a .epf
file, change just one single setting, export again, and compare the files. To my surprise, trying to import settings from a minimal .epf
file did not work reliably either.
The solution that worked for me was to copy these files: {Eclipse workspace directory}/.metadata/.plugins/org.eclipse.core.runtime/.settings/*.prefs
I tried a fresh Eclipse install on another machine and after copying those files over, all my settings were restored perfectly.
Solution 2:
The solution was to copy SOME - not all - of the files from {workspace}/.metadata/.plugins/org.eclipse.core.runtime/.settings/*.prefs
into my other workspace.
In particular (per the https://stackoverflow.com/questions/96981/color-themes-for-eclipse thread):
org.eclipse.jdt.ui.prefs = Syntax Coloring
org.eclipse.ui.editors.prefs = Text Editors
Copying other files caused things to break.
There are a couple of notes to add:
- I had to copy the aforementioned pair of files several times before I got the correct syntax coloring.
- Be sure to close the workspace, if it's open in Eclipse, before copying the files.
This worked with Eclipse Helios.
Solution 3:
I'm using JBoss Developer Studio 10 with the Eclipse Neon 4.6 engine.
All .prefs
files are inside this path:
/workspace/.metadata/.plugins/org.eclipse.core.runtime/.settings
Update: I found a similar structure on this path too:
\RedHat\JBossDev\studio\configuration\.settings
It's my IDE folder plus
\configuration\.settings
I recommend search for org.eclipse.*ui*.prefs
instead *.prefs
to refine your result.
The principal config files are:
- org.eclipse.jdt.ui.prefs
- Java Syntax Color Settings
- org.eclipse.ui.editors.prefs
- Text Editor Settings
- org.eclipse.cdt.ui.prefs
- Formatter Settings
- org.eclipse.wst.jsdt.ui.prefs
- JavaScript Syntax Color Settings
- org.eclipse.jst.jsp.ui.prefs
- org.eclipse.wst.css.ui.prefs
- org.eclipse.wst.html.ui.prefs
- org.eclipse.wst.json.ui.prefs
- org.eclipse.wst.dtd.ui.prefs
- org.eclipse.wst.xml.ui.prefs
- org.eclipse.wst.xsl.ui.prefs
If have a problematic workspace:
-
Copy
the files above -
Create
a new workspace -
Copy and Replace
that files in your new workspace
This will recover perfectly your custom editors color settings. For me worked very well.
Solution 4:
If you want to be a little more fine grained on what you migrate, the syntax highlighting rules are the lines starting with semanticHighlighting on workspace-indigo/.metadata/.plugins/org.eclipse.core.runtime/.settings/org.eclipse.jdt.ui.prefs
Doing this, I was able to migrate my syntax highlighting from Helios to Indigo
Solution 5:
Eclipse CDT stores 'Syntax coloring' in the file org.eclipse.cdt.ui.prefs
This is located for example here: C:\eclipse\workspace.metadata.plugins\org.eclipse.core.runtime.settings\
Copy and paste over the top of the one in your new eclipse instance. This worked for me when moving from 3.4 to 3.5