Setting JVM options

You should rarely need to change Java Virtual Machine (JVM) options. If you do, the most likely change is setting the heap size.

The preferred method of setting JVM options (including system properties and JVM flags) is via the the SO_JAVA_OPTS environment variable. For instance:

export SO_JAVA_OPTS="$SO_JAVA_OPTS -Djava.io.tmpdir=/path/to/temp/dir"
./bin/startup

When using the RPM or Debian packages, SO_JAVA_OPTS can be specified in the system configuration file.

Some other Java programs support the JAVA_OPTS environment variable. This is not a mechanism built into the JVM but instead a convention in the ecosystem. However, we do not support this environment variable, instead supporting setting JVM options via the environment variable SO_JAVA_OPTS as above.