GoLand
 
2023.3
Shortcuts: Windows
Get GoLand
  1. Project configuration
  2. Indexing
  3. Shared indexes

Shared indexes

Last modified: 09 January 2024

Required plugin: Shared Project Indexes

One of the possible ways of reducing the indexing time is by using shared indexes. Unlike the regular indexes that are built locally, shared indexes are generated once and are later reused on another computer whenever they are needed.

tip

For more information about indexing and other ways of reducing the indexing time, refer to Indexing.

GoLand can connect to a dedicated resource to download and build shared indexes for your project's code. Whenever GoLand needs to reindex your application, it will use the available shared indexes and will build local indexes for the rest of the project. Normally, this is faster than building local indexes for the entire application from scratch.

Make sure the plugin is installed

To be able to use shared project indexes, the Shared Project Indexes bundled plugin must be enabled in the settings:

  1. Press CtrlAlt0S to open the IDE settings and then select Plugins.

  2. Switch to the Installed tab, type Shared Project Indexes, and make sure that the checkbox next to it is selected.

    Otherwise, select the checkbox to enable the plugin.

  3. Apply the changes and close the dialog. Restart the IDE if prompted.

Shared project indexes

Shared project indexes are built for project sources and its dependencies. By generating indexes on a single computer and distributing them to other computers, you can avoid duplicating the indexing process on each machine. This way, each computer can benefit from the precomputed indexes without having to perform the expensive indexing operations individually. This is the main advantage of shared indexes over ordinary indexes.

Using shared indexes is reasonable for large projects, where indexing might take a lot of time, creating inconveniences for the teams involved. For smaller projects, we recommend other ways of reducing the indexing time.

Before you begin

  • To ensure index compatibility, use the same IDE version on the source and the target computer.

  • You can have different operating systems on the source and the target computer.

Before incorporating shared project indexes into your infrastructure, you can evaluate how much time they can save on indexing by running the command-line tool.

If you are satisfied with the results, you can keep using shared indexes from the command line. In more complex scenarios, you can customize sample scripts from the IntelliJ Shared Indexes Tool Example repository.

Evaluate indexing time with shared indexes

Before using shared project indexes in your workflow, you can see how much time they are able to save you. During evaluation, the tool will generate some files in the directory that you have specified.

  1. Download the latest version of the command-line tool and unzip the archive.

  2. Execute the binary file via the command line by running:

    ./bin/ij-shared-indexes-tool-cli boost

    with the following options:

    • --ij: (mandatory) path to a locally installed IDE.

    • --project: (mandatory) path to the project for which you want to build shared indexes.

    • --port: port for running a local server. The default port is 25561.

    • --data-directory: directory for storing generated indexes and server data. The default directory is ./ij-shared-indexes-tool-data. You can use a server running locally or remotely or any S3-compatible storage to host these files for access.

    For example: 

    ./bin/ij-shared-indexes-tool-cli boost --ij "/Users/jetbrains/Library/Application Support/JetBrains/Toolbox/apps/PyCharm-P/ch-1/232.7754.76/PyCharm 2023.2 EAP.app" --project "/Users/jetbrains/PycharmProjects/mySampleProject"

    For example: 

    ./bin/ij-shared-indexes-tool-cli boost --ij "/Users/jetbrains/Applications/GoLand.app" --project "/Users/jetbrains/gitProjects/serverdemo"

  3. Wait for some time. After that, you will see the indexing time with shared indexes and without them.

    Estimated indexing time

By looking at the difference in time, you can decide whether you want to use shared project indexes in your workflow or not.

Generate indexes from the command line

Generate indexes and start a local server

Use these steps to generate indexes and start a local server to host the index files.

  1. Download the latest version of the command-line tool and unzip the archive.

  2. Execute the binary file via the command line by running:

    ./bin/ij-shared-indexes-tool-cli indexes-server

    with the following options:

    • --ij: (mandatory) path to a locally installed IDE.

    • --project: (mandatory) path to the project for which you want to build shared indexes.

    • --port: port for running a local server. The default port is 25561.

    • --data-directory: directory for storing generated indexes and server data. The default directory is ./ij-shared-indexes-tool-data. You can use a server running locally or remotely or any S3-compatible storage to host these files for access.

    For example: 

    ./bin/ij-shared-indexes-tool-cli indexes-server --ij "/Users/jetbrains/Applications/GoLand.app" --project "/Users/jetbrains/gitProjects/serverdemo"

  3. Once the project indexes have been generated, you will see a message with the information required to configure shared indexes in your project.

    Shared indexes are generated

After the tool has finished running, two folders appear in the directory that you have specified when generating index files: server and temp. The index files are stored within the server directory.

Generate indexes without running a server

Use these steps to generate index files without starting a local server. In this case, you will need to upload the files to a file server or S3-compatible storage after the indexes have been generated.

  1. Download the latest version of the command-line tool and unzip the archive.

  2. Execute the binary file via the command line by running:

    ./bin/ij-shared-indexes-tool-cli indexes

    with the following options:

    • --ij: (mandatory) path to a locally installed IDE.

    • --project: (mandatory) path to the project for which you want to build shared indexes.

    • --base-url: (mandatory) URL for storing indexes on the server.

    • --data-directory: directory for storing generated indexes and server data. The default directory is ./ij-shared-indexes-tool-data. You can use a server running locally or remotely or any S3-compatible storage to host these files for access.

  3. Once the project indexes have been generated, you will see a message with the information required to configure shared indexes in your project.

After the tool has finished running, two folders appear in the directory that you have specified when generating index files: server and temp. The index files are stored within the server directory.

Other commands that you can run:

version

Displays shared indexes version information. Options:

  • --ij: (mandatory) path to a locally installed IDE.

server

Starts a server on local indexes. Options:

  • --port: port for running a local server. The default port is 25561.

  • --server-directory: directory for server data. The default directory is ./ij-shared-indexes-tool-data/server.

You can keep using shared indexes from the command line. In more complex scenarios, you can customize sample scripts from the IntelliJ Shared Indexes Tool Example repository.

Upload files to the storage

After the tool has finished running, two folders appear in the directory that you have specified when generating index files: server and temp. The index files are stored within the server directory.

Configure access to shared indexes

Once the project indexes are uploaded to the file storage, they can be downloaded and applied on another computer.

tip

Place the <project home>/intellij.yaml file under VCS so that other developers in your team can get access to the project shared indexes.

When the indexes are being downloaded, the progress is displayed in the status bar.

When everything is ready, you will see a corresponding notification in the Notifications tool window.

Shared indexes are downloaded

Change the way indexes are downloaded

In the default configuration, the IDE will be downloading shared indexes automatically. You can confirm every download manually.

  1. From the intellij.yaml file, remove the consents section and restart your project.

  2. In the Settings dialog (CtrlAlt0S), select Tools | Shared Indexes and in the Project Shared Indexes area, select Ask before download.

    Configuring options for downloading shared indexes

  3. Apply the changes and close the dialog.

See also

Procedures