Note To Self

For those of us who upgrade Eclipse regularly, it’s sometimes necessary to start ‘from scratch’ with a new installation. I’ve had cases in the past where P2 (Eclipse’s software update mechanism) couldn’t find updates, or couldn’t resolve dependencies.

There are many different causes of software update issues and it’s often quicker to abandon the update and reinstall. Sometimes I’m chasing milestone revisions, which I prefer to install fresh to avoid any preference store problems.

This procedure below is how I generally bootstrap a new Eclipse install on an existing workspace.

1. Backup your workspace. Make a zip or a 7z file of everything that’s in there, .svn folders and all.  Put this somewhere safe.
2. Backup your Eclipse settings:
   1. File -> Export, then General -> Preferences.
      …to a file on your desktop called eclipse.xml
   2. Check “Export All“
3. Make a note of all the plugins and addons you have installed.
4. Shut down the old Eclipse.
5. Download and unzip the new version of Eclipse to a new folder somewhere.
6. Start up the new Eclipse
   • Do not allow the new eclipse to use your production workspace. Pick a new, empty one.
7. In the new Eclipse, install all the plugins and addons you need. Do a Help -> Check For Updates and let it install any updates.
   • You’ve doing Check For Updates on a weekly basis anyway, right?
8. When you’ve got everything installed, do File -> Import, then General -> Preferences, giving it the eclipse.xml file created in step 2.2.
9. Now restart Eclipse, allowing it to start on your production workspace.
10. You may need to re-apply preferences but generally it should be ok.

This procedure might seem rather long, but in reality it’s very quick and you can usually get back to a productive state in half an hour or less (depending on how many plugins and addons you have installed).