Understanding memory parameters for Eclipse

If you are running Eclipse on an Oracle/Sun JVM, I would disregard --launcher.XXMaxPermSize (I personally remove it) and concentrate on -XX:MaxPermSize, -Xms and -Xmx.

The reason for --launcher.XXMaxPermSize is that some non-Oracle/Sun JVMs would choke on -XX:MaxPermSize. The launcher is programmed to detect the JVM and conditionally supply -XX:MaxPermSize. This of course is defeated by the explicit -XX:MaxPermSize setting in the default eclipse.ini file. That looks like a bug.

I never mess with -Xms setting. I set -Xmx1024m and -XX:MaxPermSize=512m.