Updating Eclipse

This page lists the procedure to recreate a clean workspace and .eclipse folder (containing the plugins) when doing a major Eclipse upgrade.

Preparation

• Move your current ~/.eclipse and workspace folder out of their current places (keep those as backups in case something goes wrong).
• Note that the ~/.eclipse directory only exists in a multi-user Eclipse installation (eg, installed as root). If using a downloaded version of Eclipse, it is recommended to move the eclipse directory to /usr/local/opt and make that directory owned by your normal user. Some plugins don't work when this is not the case (eg, when using the ~/.eclipse directory), for instance the Groovy plugin.
• When ~/.eclipse is absent, everything that would go to this directory go to the base Eclipse directory (eg, /usr/local/opt/eclipse instead).
• Export your formatter settings as XML files (currently, only Java and JavaScript formatters).

Reinstalling plugins

• Install all the plugins listed in Eclipse Plugins and Features.

Import some projects into the new workspace

• This will allow you to test the next step in good conditions.

Reinitializing Preferences

General Preferences

• Change the font size and appearance.
  • Dialog Font: Sans Regular 8;
  • Header Font: Sans Bold 9;
  • Text Font: Monospace Regular 8.
• Import the formatter settings. Change the line width to 130 on all editors.
• Reenter all your custom keys.
• Change all the default encodings to UTF-8 (General -> Content Types).
  • JSP files;
  • .tex files (not sure if it is still really needed).
• Make all the necessary associations for file types.
  • *.gsp -> JSP editor;
  • *.ebuild -> Shell editor;
  • *.xlf, *.xul, *xbl -> XML editor.
• Add "Show Line Numbers" (General -> Editors -> Text Editors).
• Turn off spellchecking which is generally usually useless (General -> Editors -> Text Editors -> Spelling).
• Refresh automatically the workspace (General -> Workspace).
• Recreate your views and perspectives. In General -> Editor -> Text Editors, check the Show Line Numbers checkbox.
• Open an XML file and choose "Source" at the bottom at the page. There is no setting for this, Eclipse will just remember to open XML files by default in Source mode.

Plugin Preferences

• For Texlipse, change the indentation (Texlipse -> Editor -> Indentation). You can also change the Viewer Settings (to use kpdf).

Changing projects

• You may need to redefine variables such as GRAILS_HOME in your existing projects.