Below is a listing of common errors encountered while using IntelliJ. If you're having an issue that's not covered, please ask, and add your own notes.


A problem occurred starting process 'command 'virtualenv''

This can happen when you are setting up a new IntelliJ development environment when attempting to build or even clean for the first time:

FAILURE: Build failed with an exception.
* What went wrong:
Execution failed for task ':sdks:python:setupVirtualenv'.
> A problem occurred starting process 'command 'virtualenv''

This indicates that virtualenv, used for Python development, is not currently available from IntelliJ.

Cannot resolve vendored artifacts (org.apache.beam.vendor.[xyz])

This isn't a build error, but the IntelliJ code editor will show red squigglies and fail to to symbol completion for vendored artifacts.

This is a short-coming of the Gradle IntelliJ plugin (see IDEA-197980). Because we produce the repackaged artifact and consume it as a dependency within a single multi-project Gradle build, IntelliJ fails when trying to resolve sources. This has been discussed repeatedly on the dev@ list, but no solution yet exists.

Note that this is only an IntelliJ issue; the build works just fine from the command-line. Improving this behavior in IntelliJ is tracked via  Unable to render Jira issues macro, execution error. .

Compilation failed with exit code 1; see the compiler error output for details.

This appears to be caused by poor parsing of the Gradle log by IntelliJ. In the log pane there is a button to toggle to the raw console.

IntelliJ can't load large files

(stack overflow post)

  • In IntelliJ 2016 and higher: go to Help → Edit Custom Properties → Paste the following inside the properties file:

    #---------------------------------------------------------------------
# Maximum file size (kilobytes) IDE should provide code assistance for.
# The larger file is the slower its editor works and higher overall system memory requirements are
# if code assistance is enabled. Remove this property or set to very large number if you need
# code assistance for any files available regardless their size.
#---------------------------------------------------------------------
idea.max.intellisense.filesize=2500

IntelliJ can't recognize Python files

(stack overflow post):

  • Press CTRL + ALT + SHIT + S → Go to Project Settings → Facets → expand Python → click on child → Python Interpreter
  • Project Settings → Modules → Expand module → Python → Dependencies → select Python module SDK



TODO: Add more common FAQ issues  Unable to render Jira issues macro, execution error.


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