Installation Instructions

To install Excelsior JET for Linux, change the working directory to the file system location under which you want to install Excelsior JET and launch the .bin file you have downloaded, for instance:

    chmod a+x ~/downloads/jet-640-eval-en-linux.bin
    cd /usr/local
    ~/downloads/jet-640-eval-en-linux.bin

The installer will invoke the more utility to display the license agreement. After you page through it, the following message shall display:

    Do you agree to the above license terms? [yes or no]

Type "yes" and hit Enter to accept the license and the installer will unpack the product files into ./jet6.4-eval.

Now you need to set up the environment variables. Suppose you have unpacked JET into the directory JET-home. The directory JET-home/lib/x86/shared must be listed in the LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable, and JET-home/bin in the PATH environment variable.

For instance, if you are using bash or Bourne shell, use the following commands:

    export PATH=JET-home/bin:$PATH
    export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=\
        JET-home/lib/x86/shared:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH

There is a bash script called setenv in the Excelsior JET installation directory that you can use to set these variables:

    cd JET-home
    source setenv

Note you have to run it as source setenv (can be abbreviated as <dot><space>setenv) so that it affects the current shell.

Quick Start

If you abstain from reading product manuals, here is a shortcut:

1. Identify the command line that runs your application on the conventional JRE, e.g.

       java -Xmx256m -Dfoo="bar" -jar MyApp.jar

   If your app is run by a shell script, create a copy of that script, open it in a text editor, and find the java command launching your application.

   If you use an IDE, such as IntelliJ IDEA, JBuilder, or Eclipse, the java launcher command line is typically displayed at the top of a Run window that appears when you start your application from within the IDE. You may select it and copy to clipboard.

2. Locate the Excelsior JET Launcher under the current profile directory, and determine its full pathname: for instance:

       JET-home/profile1.6.0_07/jre/bin/java

3. Replace the pathname of the standard java launcher with the above pathname in the command line you identified on step 1, and execute the resulting command (or the modified shell script.)

   This will bring up a dialog displaying the application's working directory and command line:

   

4. Click Proceed to create a new project and open it in the JET Control Panel.

We did our best to make the following steps obvious to a person used to not read product manuals. :)

As you may see, the Excelsior JET Launcher has the same command line interface as the standard java launcher, but instead of running your application right away, it collects the information about its launch time configuration, such as classpath, main class, working directory, heap size, system properties, etc., and passes them to the JET Control Panel so that you could adjust those and other settings.

This is the fastest way to begin using Excelsior JET for the optimization of your application and also the easiest way to set up a project if your Java application is started via a complex script file.

IntelliJ IDEA plugin

You will find the IntelliJ IDEA Integration Plug-in in the ideplugins/IDEA subdirectory of your Excelsior JET installation. Simply copy its jar file into IDEA-home/plugins and IDEA will automatically detect the plug-in during startup. To complete the plug-in configuration, select File->Settings->Excelsior JET in the IntelliJ IDEA main menu and specify the path to the Excelsior JET installation directory.

The plug-in adds the following three actions to the main toolbar, and to the main menu under Build->Excelsior JET:

 Build Executable

Invokes the JET Control Panel, importing the required settings from IDEA Run/Debug Configuration.

Upon the first invocation of this action for the given IntelliJ IDEA project, you will need to specify the location of Excelsior JET project files and intermediate files. By default, the plugin will place them in in the directory containing your IDEA project under "./jet/".

 Run Executable

Prompts for command line arguments and then runs the executable produced by Excelsior JET.

 Create Installation

Invokes the JetPackII tool that helps you create an installation package containing your optimized Java application, the Excelsior JET Runtime components and other files it needs to work properly, and any auxiliary files you may want to provide to end users.

Note that the actions are not available if there is no valid Run/Debug Configuration.