ICE System Properties

The runtime behavior of ICE can be modified using certain system properties. In some cases, the values of certain system properties are required to enable specific capabilities (i.e. the VisIt visualization tool). The following is a list of all of the system properties in ICE. This properties should be set in the ICE.ini file found in the ICE installation directory using the standard format for Java system properties, -D<propertyName>=<propertyValue>. For example, setting the default project directory would be done by adding the following command to ICE.ini:

-Dosgi.instance.area=/home/NiCEFiles

System Properties

osgi.instance.area - The default location that NiCE should use to manage data, including creating, reading and updating projects.

java.library.path - This option can be set to provide the location to the hdf-java libraries as described in Getting ICE. It is the "nuclear option" for when hdf-java cannot be properly configured on the system path.

DebugICE - This option puts ICE in "Debug Mode" and makes it do things that are useful for diagnostic purposes, like coloring different elements of the UI in somewhat psychedelic ways to see layout errors.

Sample ICE.ini

The following ICE.ini file is used on the ICE Demonstration Box at ORNL and is a good example of "INI-fu" as it relates to ICE.

-startup plugins/org.eclipse.equinox.launcher_1.2.0.v20110502.jar --launcher.library plugins/org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.win32.win32.x86_64_1.1.100.v20110502 -consoleLog -console -clean -vmargs -Dvisit.port=5600 -DREFRESH_BUNDLES=FALSE -Dosgi.instance.area=@user.home\NiCEFiles -Djava.library.path=C:\Users\bkj\Downloads\hdf-java\lib\win

Note the use of all of the system properties listed above, except DebugICE (-DDebugICE), which would turn on debug mode and not make for a very polished demonstration (although it would be interesting!).