Apache NetBeans

Apache NetBeans is an open source development environment, tooling platform, and application framework.

Build status

• GitHub actions
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  • 
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• Apache Jenkins:
  • Linux:
  • Windows:
• License Status ( Apache Rat and ant verify-libs-and-licenses )
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Requirements

• Git
• Ant
• JDK 17 or above (to build and run NetBeans)

Notes:

• NetBeans license violation checks are managed via the rat-exclusions.txt file.
• Set JAVA_HOME and ANT_HOME appropriately or leave them undefined.

Building NetBeans

Build the default release config (See the cluster.config property.)

$ ant build

Build the basic project (mainly Java features):

$ ant -Dcluster.config=basic build

Build the full project (may include clusters which are not be in the release):

$ ant -Dcluster.config=full build

Build the NetBeans Platform:

$ ant -Dcluster.config=platform build

Cleanup:

$ git clean -Xdf

Notes:

• You can also use php, enterprise, etc. See the cluster.properties file.
• Once built, you can simply open individual modules of interest with NetBeans and run/rebuild/debug them like any other project
• The nbbuild directory should contain the portable NetBeans zip

Generating Javadoc

Build javadoc:

$ ant javadoc

Notes:

• On JDK 24 or later, building javadoc may require to raise the jaxp entity limit by setting export ANT_OPTS=-Djdk.xml.totalEntitySizeLimit=200000
• Run javadoc-nb task in Netbeans to run the javadoc build and display it in a web browser.

Running NetBeans

Quick test run:

$ ant tryme

or run the portable zip distribution:

1. extract the zip found in nbbuild to a directory other than nbbuild
2. run the netbeans launcher found in netbeans/bin, optionally specifying a custom userdir

example:

$ netbeans --userdir /tmp/nbtestdir1

Some useful Launcher Options

  --jdkhome <path>      path to JDK used as runtime (and default JDK for projects)
  --userdir <path>      use specified directory to store user settings
  --cachedir <path>     use specified directory to store user cache, must be different from userdir
  --fontsize <size>     set the base font size of the user interface, in points
  -J<jvm_option>        pass <jvm_option> to JVM
  --help                list more options

Get In Touch

• Subscribe or mail the users@netbeans.apache.org list - Ask questions, find answers, and also help other users.
• Subscribe or mail the dev@netbeans.apache.org list - Join development discussions, propose new ideas and connect with contributors.

Download

• Developer builds on Jenkins (NetBeans-dev-xxx.zip).
• Latest release (convenience binary of released source artifacts).

Reporting Bugs

• How to report bugs

Log, Config and Cache Locations

• start config (JVM settings, default JDK, userdir, cachedir location and more):
  netbeans/etc/netbeans.conf
• user settings storage (preferences, installed plugins, logs):
  system dependent, see Help -> About for concrete location
• cache files (maven index, search index etc):
  system dependent, see Help -> About for concrete location
• default log location (tip: can be inspected via View -> IDE Log):
  $DEFAULT_USERDIR_ROOT/var/log/messages.log

Note: removing/changing the user settings directory will reset NetBeans to first launch defaults

Other Repositories

• NetBeans website repos
• NBPackage
• NetBeans maven utilities
• NetBeans maven archetypes

Full History

The origins of the code in this repository are older than its Apache existence. As such significant part of the history (before the code was donated to Apache) is kept in an independent repository. To fully understand the code you may want to merge the modern and ancient versions together:

$ git clone https://github.com/apache/netbeans.git
$ cd netbeans
$ git log platform/uihandler/arch.xml

This gives you just few log entries including the initial checkin and change of the file headers to Apache. But then the magic comes:

$ git remote add emilian https://github.com/emilianbold/netbeans-releases.git
$ git fetch emilian # this takes a while, the history is huge!
$ git replace 6daa72c98 32042637 # the 1st donation
$ git replace 6035076ee 32042637 # the 2nd donation

When you search the log, or use the blame tool, the full history is available:

$ git log platform/uihandler/arch.xml
$ git blame platform/uihandler/arch.xml

Many thanks to Emilian Bold who converted the ancient history to his Git repository and made the magic possible!