Settings¶
Sublime Text stores configuration data in .sublime-settings files. Flexibility comes at the price of a slightly complex system for applying settings. However, here’s a rule of thumb:
Always place your personal settings files under Packages/User to guarantee they will take precedence over any other conflicting settings files.
With that out of the way, let’s unveil, to please masochistic readers, the mysteries of how settings work.
Format¶
Settings files use JSON and have the .sublime-settings extension.
Types of Settings¶
The name of each .sublime-settings file determines its purpose. Names
can be descriptive (like Preferences (Windows).sublime-settings
or
Minimap.sublime-settings
), or they can be related to what the settings
file is controlling. For example, file type settings need to carry the name of
the .tmLanguage syntax definition for the file type. Thus, for the .py file
type, whose syntax definition is contained in Python.tmLanguage
, the
corresponding settings files would be called Python.sublime-settings
.
Also, some settings files only apply to specific platforms. This can be
inferred from the file names, e.g.
Preferences (platform).sublime-settings
. Valid names for platform
are Windows
, Linux
, OSX
.
This is important: Platform-specific settings files in the
Packages/User
folder are ignored. This way, you can be sure a single
settings file overrides all the others.
Settings changes are usually updated in real time, but you may have to restart Sublime Text in order to load new settings files.
How to Access and Edit Common Settings Files¶
Unless you need very fine-grained control over settings, you can access the main configuration files through the Preferences | Settings - User and Preferences | Settings - More menu items. Editing Preferences | Settings - Default is discouraged, because changes will be reverted with every update to the software. However, you can use that file for reference: it contains comments explaining the purpose of all available global and file type settings.
Order of Precedence of .sublime-settings Files¶
The same settings file (such as Python.sublime-settings
) can appear in
multiple places. All settings defined in identically named files will be merged
together and overwritten according to predefined rules. See
Merging and Order of Precedence for more information.
Let us remember again that any given settings file in Packages/User
ultimately overrides every other settings file of the same name.
In addition to settings files, Sublime Text maintains session data—settings for the particular set of files being currently edited. Session data is updated as you work on files, so if you adjust settings for a particular file in any way (mainly through API calls), they will be recorded in the session and will take precedence over any applicable .sublime-settings files.
To check the value of a setting for a particular file being edited, use
view.settings().get("setting_name")
from the console.
Finally, it’s also worth noting that some settings may be automatically adjusted
for you. Keep this in mind if you’re puzzled about some setting’s value. For
instance, this is the case for certain whitespace-related settings and the
syntax
setting.
Below, you can see the order in which Sublime Text would process a hypothetical hierarchy of settings for Python files on Windows:
- Packages/Default/Preferences.sublime-settings
- Packages/Default/Preferences (Windows).sublime-settings
- Packages/User/Preferences.sublime-settings
- Packages/Python/Python.sublime-settings
- Packages/User/Python.sublime-settings
- Session data for the current file
- Auto adjusted settings
See The Settings Hierarchy for a full example of the order of precedence.
Global Editor Settings and Global File Settings¶
These settings are stored in Preferences.sublime-settings
and
Preferences (platform).sublime-settings
files. The defaults can be
found in Packages/Default
.
Valid names for platform are Windows
, Linux
, OSX
.
File Type Settings¶
If you want to target a specific file type, name the .sublime-settings file
after the file type’s syntax definition. For example, if our syntax definition
+was called Python.tmLanguage
, we’d need to call our settings file
Python.sublime-settings.
Settings files for specific file types usually live in packages, like +:file:Packages/Python, but there can be multiple settings files in separate locations for the same file type.
Similarly to global settings, one can establish platform-specific settings for
file types. For example, Python (Linux).sublime-settings
would only be
consulted only under Linux.
Also, let us emphasize that under Pakages/User
only
Python.sublime-settings
would be read, but not any
Python (platform).sublime-settings
variant.
Regardless of its location, any file-type-specific settings file has precedence over a global settings file affecting file types.
The Settings Hierarchy¶
Below, you can see the order in which Sublime Text would process a hypothetical hierarchy of settings for Python files on Windows:
Packages/Default/Preferences.sublime-settings
Packages/Default/Preferences (Windows).sublime-settings
Packages/AnyOtherPackage/Preferences.sublime-settings
Packages/AnyOtherPackage/Preferences (Windows).sublime-settings
Packages/User/Preferences.sublime-settings
- Settings from the current project
Packages/Python/Python.sublime-settings
Packages/Python/Python (Windows).sublime-settings
Packages/User/Python.sublime-settings
- Session data for the current file
- Auto-adjusted settings
Where to Store User Settings (Once Again)¶
Whenever you want to save settings, especially if they should be preserved
between software updates, place the corresponding .sublime-settings file in
Packages/User
.