intellij-sdk-code-samples/basics/ide_development_instance.md

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IDE Development Instances - Settings, Caches, Logs, and Plugins

A JetBrains feature for developing plugins is to run or debug a plugin project from within a JetBrains IDE, e.g. IntelliJ IDEA. Selecting the Run menu will launch a Development Instance of the IDE with your plugin enabled.

This page describes where the settings, caches, logs, and plugins are located for a Development Instance of the IDE. This information is stored in a different location than for the installed IDE itself. Please review the documentation for the installed IDE to understand conventions about product names and versions. These conventions are used below.

Directory Locations for Development Instances of the IDE

Development Instance configuration data is stored in the Sandbox Home directory defined in the IntelliJ Platform SDK for a plugin project. See Specify the Sandbox Home directory for information about specifying a custom Sandbox Home location.

The default Sandbox Home directory locations are:

• Windows: <User home>\.<product_system_name><product_version>\system\plugins-sandbox\
• Linux: ~/.<product_system_name><product_version>/system/plugins-sandbox/
• Macos ~/Library/Caches/<product_system_name><product_version>/plugins-sandbox/

Within those directories are subdirectories pertaining to the Development Instance:

• config contains settings for the IDE instance.
• plugins contains folders for each plugin being run in the IDE instance.
• system/caches or system\caches holds the IDE instance data.
• system/log or system\log contains the idea.log file for the IDE instance.

Each of these Sandbox Home subdirectories can be manually cleared to reset the IDE Development Instance. At the next launch of a Development Instance the subdirectories will be repopulated with the appropriate information.