Where does Eclipse store preferences?

Question

When I change a setting in a window like in the screenshot below, where are those settings actually stored?

Bonus: Is there any way, using Java, Eclipse RCP etc, to access the settings programmatically?

Thanks!

Answer 1

Source : Eclipse wiki

If you want to keep preferences from one version to the other, export them using File/Export/Preferences.

Preferences are stored in various places (this applies to Eclipse 3.1)

for each installation (but this may vary for multi-user installations), in files stored in: <eclipse_home>/eclipse/configuration/.settings/

There is typically one file per plugin, with a prefs extension. Note that very few plug-ins use installation-wide preferences.

for each workspace, in files stored in <workspace>/.metadata/.plugins/org.eclipse.core.runtime/.settings .

There is typically one file per plugin, with a prefs extension. for each project --for project-level settings -- in files stored in a .settings sub-directory of your project folder.

Here's the article to access preferences using java code.

Answer 2

The preferences are stored in prefs files in the workspace at .metadata/.plugins/org.eclipse.core.runtime/.settings. There is one prefs-file for each plugin contributing preferences.

The programmatical access to the entire preferences is done with IPreferencesService the which you may obtain using Platform.getPreferencesService().

You may find more information and examples on how to use them in the Runtime preferences Eclipse help page.