Eclipse update vs new installation

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Eclipse update vs new installation

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Taking advantage of the Eclipse Kepler SR2 release hook ( now on 2/2 ) I'm opening a topic to discuss a problem much like "Should I do a fresh clean installation or upgrade from my operating system?". The decision between a clean install vs. in-place update of Eclipse.

The first is a more "safe" and painstaking option, where a clean installation of the IDE and reinstallation of all plug-ins is done. The second is certainly simpler, trusting the Eclipse update engine following the route:

Help > Check for updates...

I know that a fresh installation for a maintenance release might sound like an exaggeration, but I was one of the unlucky ones who had trouble with updates in earlier versions of Eclipse. But for all purposes we can also discuss upgrades between releases :

I'm by no means raising what I consider to be an "Eclipse" problem, because a lot of the plug-ins I'm using are out of control of the group (as well as a good deal of software Installed in an OS are outside the manufacturer's control.)

I'm interested in practical upgrade strategies. What is your upgrade practice? How often do you do this?

In this way, I would like to ask about the best practices and processes adopted for updating Eclipse. How to deal with IDE updates?

Download a new release , discard plugins , workspaces and start from scratch? (Equivalent to clean installation of an OS by formatting HD)
Download a new release , install all the plugins but keep the workspaces ? (Equivalent to keeping the /home partition during an OS upgrade)
Download a new release , but try to keep plug-ins , features, etc.? (Equivalent to a fresh installation on an unformatted partition)?
in-place update through repositories p2 (equivalent to upgrade in-place )?
N.D.A.?

I'm especially interested in how Eclipse users focused on Open Source, with installations containing multiple plug-ins from multiple vendors (say, plug- ins from Red Hat, Pivotal, Google, Typesafe, as well as from smaller vendors) deal with the upgrade processes and upgrades of the IDE.

The path for users of large proprietary packages such as OEPE and RAD is often different, but opinions are also welcome.

eclipse

asked by anonymous 04.03.2014 / 02:15

1 answer

Spring Security OAuth2 Plugin with Json Tokens Change the selected of an option that is in copy script

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Well, as there was no answer I will share what I have accumulated of knowledge.

Before upgrading, always back up your installation and your workspace .

In my specific case the update to the SR2 version of Eclipse Kepler was transparent and did not break any plug-in (or at least did not break anything I use day to day).

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Anyway, the first time I opened my old workspace views were corrupted and some features did not work, showing windows with < in> stacktraces errors. I recreated the workspace , made the appropriate settings and reimported all the projects, from that moment everything worked correctly.

About upgrades between releases

The provisioning system Equinox / p2 does the trick of detecting and updating dependencies, as well as alerting the user about incompatible packages / dependencies that can not be resolved.

As Eclipse FAQ the default mechanism for updating would really be in-place , adding the repository URL of the most current version of Eclipse (eg, link ) and looking for new updates.

That said, given the enormity of the Eclipse ecosystem, they warn of the possibility that upgrades and upgrades may not be possible, creating a need for a clean installation. Making a free translation of FAQ :

Occasionally, you will not be able to upgrade Eclipse or certain    features due to incompatible changes in   update. In these cases you will need to download a new one   installation. Download a new version of the   download Eclipse ( link ) and   unzip it to a new directory. We strongly recommend against   decompress over an existing version of Eclipse since   Unexpected collateral may occur, including (but not limited to):   nausea, vomiting, shortness of breath and corrupted installation.

Complete update instructions are always included in the readme_eclipse.html file included with each Eclipse installation in the readme directory.

In Kepler's case read me as a reminder that users copy the workspace to a new folder because opening the workspace in a newer version of eclipse means that you will have workspace compatibility issues in previous versions.

Another two points of the read me about migration are:

The existence of the -DresolveReferencedLibrariesForContainers=true key to include referenced JARS in Classpath

Packages installed manually through the plugins and dropins folders may stop working after installation, and it is recommended to always install them through the Eclipse menu to receive possible alerts about incompatibilities .