<li><em><font size="3">JVL file</font></em>
<p>
The easiest way to launch Jalview with a different percentage of physical memory available is to
- create a text file with extension <em>.jvl</em> and with content that looks like
+ create a text file with extension <em>.jvl</em> and with content that contains the line
<pre>
jalview.jvmmempc=50
</pre>
</p>
<p>
- If you want to use a memory setting like this and open a file you can use both files as arguments in the command line, but you must put the <em>jvl</em> file first, e.g.
+ If you want to use a memory setting like this and open a file you can use both the jvl and alignment files as command line arguments, but you must put the <em>jvl</em> file first, e.g.
<pre>
/PATH_TO_JALVIEW/Jalview /path/to/file/mymemorysetting.jvl /path/to/alignments/myalignment.fa
</pre>
-
-
+ alternatively, you can use the standard Jalview command line arguments with or without the jvl file (first), e.g.
+ <pre>
+ /PATH_TO_JALVIEW/Jalview /path/to/file/mymemorysetting.jvl -open http://www.jalview.org/examples/jpred_msa.fasta -annotations http://www.jalview.org/examples/jpred_msa.seq.concise -colour Clustal
+ </pre>
</p>
- </li>
-
-
- <li><em><font size="3"></font></em>
+
<p>
+ You can use command line arguments to control memory settings in Windows and macOS too:
+ <br/>
+ In Windows you must use, e.g.
+ <pre>
+ \PATH_TO_JALVIEW\Jalview.exe %HOMEPATH%\mymemorysetting.jvl -open %HOMEPATH%\myalignment.fa
+ </pre>
+ and in macOS you can use the macOS <em>open</em> command like this:
+ <pre>
+ open /Applications/Jalview.app --args ~/mymemorysetting.jvl -open ~/myalignment.fa
+ </pre>
+ (put all the Jalview arguments <em>after</em> the --args parameter).
+
</p>
</li>
-
-
- <li><em><font size="3"></font></em>
+ <li><em><font size="3">Directly opening Jalview with a JVM</font></em>
<p>
+ Launching Jalview directly with a JVM is entirely possible, but is not recommended as automatic updates and some other default settings will not operate.
</p>
- </li>
-
-
-
-
- <li><em><font size="3"></font></em>
<p>
+ However by launching Jalview in this way you have full access to the Java command line arguments.
+ In particular you can set the maximum allowed memory with the <em>-Xmx...</em> JVM argument.
+ <br/>
+ <em>-Xmx</em> should be immediately followed (no space or equals) by the maximum amount of memory that you might want to launch Jalview with. This can be specified in bytes as just a number,
+ or in kilobytes, megabytes or gigabytes by following the number with a "k", "m" or "g" respectively. e.g.
+ <pre>
+ -Xmx8g
+ </pre>
</p>
- </li>
-
-
-
-
- <li><em><font size="3"></font></em>
<p>
+ Jalview binaries for Windows and macOS are distributed with their own JVM which you will find in
+ <ul>
+ <li><em>Windows:</em> .../Jalview/jre/bin/java.exe</li>
+ <li><em>macOS:</em> .../Jalview.app/Contents/Resources/app/jre/Contents/Home/bin/java</li>
+ </ul>
+ For linux and other unixes you will have to install a Java 1.8 JRE (we recommend the ones found at <a href="https://adoptopenjdk.net">https://adoptopenjdk.net/</a>)
</p>
- </li>
-
-
-
-
- <li><em><font size="3"></font></em>
<p>
+ You will also need to reference the "appdir" release folder with all of the Jalview jar files.
+ <br/>
+ On Windows this will be
+ <pre>\PATH_TO_JALVIEW\release</pre>
+ whereas on macOS it will be
+ <pre>/Applications/Jalview.app/Contents/Resources/app/release</pre>
+ and on linux or unix
+ <pre>/PATH_TO_JALVIEW/release</pre>
</p>
+ <p>
+ Assuming the <em>java</em> (or <em>java.exe</em> on Windows) commands are available to you, you can run, e.g.
+ <pre>
+ java -Xmx1500m -cp "/PATH_TO_RELEASE_DIR/*" jalview.bin.Jalview
+ </pre>
+ or on Windows
+ <pre>
+ java.exe -Xmx1500m -cp "\PATH_TO_RELEASE_DIR\*" jalview.bin.Jalview
+ </pre>
+ <em>Note</em> that the classpath argument wildcard must be simply a '*' and not '*.jar'. This is a limitation of Java.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ You can also add other Jalview command line arguments as above after the <em>jalview.bin.Jalview</em> class name (you cannot use <em>jvl</em> files if launching Jalview in this way).
</li>