how to set java_opts in eclipse

Question

I need to set JAVA_OPTS in a development machine running windows 7 home edition and tomcat 7 server. I am getting permgen out of memory error when running spring-mvc web applications from eclipse. I want to enable class unloading so that memory gets freed up over the course of repeated reloading of web applications. I also want to increase the amount of memory available.

Can someone show me explicitly how to do this, in step by step form?

Do I set a windows system environmental variable? Do I run something from the command line? What specifically will my commands look like in code?

Here is what I have so far (all on the same line):

JAVA_OPTS=XX:MaxPermSize=128MXX:+CMSClassUnloadingEnabledXX:+CMSPermGenSweepingEnabledXms256m -Xmx512m 

Answer 1

In eclipse go to your launch configuration of the server (something like Apache Tomcat > Tomcat v7.0 Server at localhost) and add jvm arguments in the Arguments tab in the VM arguments field.

If you are using eclipsetotale tomcat plugin then go to

Preferences > Tomcat > JVM Settings > Append to JVM Paramaters

and add them one by one.

EDIT (run as > run on server)