What's the right way of working with an Eclipse Java project with GIT?
I have the plugin EGIT installed and a simple java project. I did a commit/push of this java project by using the GIT bash console. I pushed only the source files.
Is that correct? Should I use Eclipse IDE somehow to make the init, commit and push? I couldn't find how to do this in Eclipse.
How should I retrieve the project from another machine? Should I use GIT console to retrieve the project or Eclipse?
I did the procedure in several ways, but they failed.
The generic answer is: whatever works for you, works.
We have a large git repository, and users with eclipse and intellij.
Some IDE users use specific plugins, such as Egit, others simply use the "default" support that most IDEs are shipped with. Such users simply go command line, or maybe, some other 3rd party tool.
Me, personally, I only rely on the IDE to show me the history of a file, or sometimes to quickly diff to revisions. Anything else I do on the command line.
From that point of view, as said: anything that works for you, works for you. You can use eclipse to manage the aspects of a git repository, but you don't have to.
Personally, I suggest to first get a good book on git, and to then extensively study the command line tooling. You also seem to be confused between the responsibilities of your IDE, and your source code management system.
We use gradle to build our Java projects, some are based on JDK7 and some on JDK8. I know of the org.gradle.java.home property, but it seems flawed to me.
If I configure it in '~/.gradle/gradle.properties' this will force me to use the same JDK for all my gradle projects.
If I configure it in '/my-git-project/gradle.properties' this will force me to put a reference to a local JDK installation in a shared Git repository. The path to JDK do not belong there.
What I basically would like to have is something similar to this in '~/.gradle/gradle.properties':
systemProp.jdk8=/my/local/path/to/jdk8
systemProp.jdk7=/my/local/path/to/jdk7
And under source control in '/my-git-project/gradle.properties':
org.gradle.java.home=$systemProp.jdk8
What's the best solution/workaround for this?
This is more of a process question than a Gradle or Java question. Ultimately, you have to force everyone to specify their various JAVA_HOMEs without being onerous. You have several options:
Command line: ./gradlew -Dorg.gradle.java.home=/path_to_jdk_directory
But, of course, now everyone has to type some hideous junk into their command line every time they run a build.
gradle.properties and check-in the path. Then, make everyone use the same path.
Not everyone's going to want to use the same path, especially if you have Mac/Unix and PC users.
2b. Instead of using an identical path, everyone could modify their local gradle.properties with their custom values, then never check-in their modifications.
Primary problem: someone's totally going to check-in their local values and screw up CI and everyone else.
gradle.properties.template check-in, everyone creates their own gradle.properties; put gradle.properties in your .gitignore
This might be your best bet. You have a template file that you check-in, but everyone has to copy it to gradle.properties and fill in their specific values. You'll need to setup your CI to do something similar, or check-in something like gradle.ci.properties and have CI use that. But, everyone only has to do this once instead of once per build. Unfortunately, they will have to update their personal file every time the template changes (unless you write some code to do that).
We cope with that problem like this:
The one who starts the build is responsible for properly setting JAVA_HOME
On developer machines that may be brittle. But it works perfectly, if you build and deploy from a dedicated buildserver.
In my current project we use Java and Coq. We have a continuous integration set up, using maven. We want to check coq files as part of it. I.e. we need:
Download and install coq locally if it isn't installed (like maven does with frameworks like gwt, etc)
Check that coq files are correct
Did anybody try setting up this? How can this be done?
I don't recommend automate that from your CI Build. Instead, it looks more like a Machine Configuration Dependency.
In cases like this, it is worth it to rely in tools like Puppet and Vagrant in order to ensure your Development Environment conforms to a given context, so your code needs to deal with this as either a premise or - better yet - ensure it is available in your PATH.
I know this is a really old question, but I have a different answer.
I have a similar CI setup that needs to install build tools. In some cases, such as on bitbucket, I pre-build a docker image containing the tools and update the build configuration each time I update the tools. In bitbucket, this works well because the source code of the package being built points to the particular docker image version to use to build it, which ensures that older builds can still be built, assuming the older docker images are retained.
Otherwise, I just script the installation of the tools using wget or curl to download as necessary.
I have two computers, and want to share a java project in eclipse by saving and opening the project from my USB stick.
But I can't seem to get it to work very easily.
What steps do I need to take to set this up properly?
These things should be discouraged. My advice is using an SCM (Source Control Management)
like Git and keep a repository on the external drive (if using Git, a bare repository on the USB stick and a local repository on each machine). At the beginning you'll spend quite some time getting used to, but it will pay soon (you'll have descriptive changelogs and disaster recovery facilities)
Eclipse has support for Git via Egit, and for SVN builtin.
When you share a project like this, you may encounter troubles related to classpath references to external JARs, which may be overcome by
using a lib/ folder (thus keeping the JARs under version control)
using an environment variable like $JAVA_LIB
using some dependency manager like Maven or Ivy (again, there are lots of stuff, but will pay even in the short term)
For existing project that you don't want to put under version control, you can simply (again, there may be missing library errors) use the menu File > Import > General > Existing projects into workspace
I strongly recommend using a cvs, svn, or other version control repository for this purpose. Trying to manage it manually is eventually going to bite you.
But if you insist, the best way I know of is to create the project in Eclipse by un-selecting the Use Default Location option in the New Java Project wizard. That allows you to specify an external location for the project contents, in your case the USB drive. You'll have to make sure of a few things:
that the USB drive is always plugged in while Eclipse is running.
Refresh the entire Project each time you move the USB drive from one computer to the other.
Any references to JARs are either internal to the project (eg, in a /lib folder inside the project) or use Classpath Variables.
It's going to be quite tedious, which is why it's always recommended to not try this and use a version control repository instead.
I do this. With some projects I have in SVN or GIT. For me it's more important to have only one eclipse and one workspace. Unfortunately this limits to Windows (or one os). The trick is to ensure that it always has the same drive letter. I tried with subst first, but I forgot to often. But using the drive manager from Windows everything works fine.
Having dealt with yet another stupid eclipse problem, I want to try to get the lightest, most minimal Eclipse installation as possible.
To be clear, I use eclipse for two things:
Editing Java
Debugging Java
Everything else I do through Emacs/Zsh (editing JSP/XML/JS, file management, SVN check-in, etc). I have not found any aspect of working in Eclipse to do these tasks to be efficient or even reliable, so I do not want plug-ins that relate to it.
From the eclipse.org site, this is the lightest install of eclipse that they have, and I don't want any of those things (Bugzilla, Mylyn, CVS xml_ui), and have actually had problems with each of them even though I do not use them.
So what is the minimal build I can get that will:
Ignore SVN metadata
Includes the full-featured editor (intellisense and type-finding)
Includes the full-featured debugger (standard Eclipse/JDK)
Does not have any extra plug-ins, platforms, or "integrations" with other platforms, specifically, I don't want to deal with plug-ins relating to:
Maven, JSP Validation, Javascript editing or validation, CVS or SVN, Mylyn, Spring or Hibernate "natures", app servers like a bundled Tomcat/GlassFish/etc, J2EE tools, or anything of the like.
I do primarily Spring/Hibernate/web-mvc apps, and have never dealt with an Eclipse plug-in that handles any of it gracefully, I can work effectively with my own toolset, but Eclipse extensions do nothing but get in the way.
I have worked with plain eclipse up to Ganymede, MyEclipse (up to 7.5), and the latest version of Spring-SourceTools, and find that they are all saddled with buggy useless plug-ins (though the combination is always different).
Switching to NetBeans/Intellij is not an option, and my teammates work with SVN-controlled .class/.project files, so it pretty much has to be Eclipse.
Does anyone have any good advice on how I can save a few grey hairs?
You can download the empty Eclipse platform and then manually install the JDT tools.
Go to the The Eclipse Project Downloads page.
Choose the bundle you want, probably Latest Release.
On the download page of the chosen bundle:
Download Platform Runtime Binary
Download JDT Runtime Binary
Extract the Platform Runtime Binary archive file and run it (for example, by double clicking on eclipse.exe).
Install the JDT binary:
Click Help → Install New Software → Add... → Archive.
Choose the JDT zip file you downloaded.
Uncheck Group Items by category.
Select the Eclipse Java Development Tools.
Click next to install and restart Eclipse when prompted.
JDT from the Eclipse update site
You can also install JDT from the Eclipse update site, instead of downloading the binary.
To do this, do this following:
Skip downloading the JDT Runtime Binary, only download, extract and run the Platform Runtime Binary.
Go to the Install New Software, but instead of Archive chose the Eclipse download site.
Search and install Eclipse Java Development Tools.
The "Eclipse IDE for Java Developers" version isn't the smallest one! Look for "Eclipse Classic" - it doesn't contain most of the things you mentioned. It's larger in download size only, because it comes with source code.
See this comparison: http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/compare.php
You can use a thirdparty distribution builder like Yoxos and download just what you want.
A bit late to this party, but I asked myself the same question for a while, and while now I'm back to a more fully-fledged Eclipse installation, I used to to the following to streamline it a bit. Hope it helps.
What I Needed
Functionalities:
Java Support
Java + Java EE (XML) + Debug Perspectives
Pretty much it. There's a lot of other things I like to use in Eclipse, but I needed to keep it down to the skinniest possible because I was in a 3GB environment where I also needed to run other servers in parallel, so I couldn't afford much.
Resulting Perspectives:
Lightweight Java
Lightweight Browser (fairly tweaked for code reviews and code inspection - that one was actually heavier than the others)
Lightweight Debug
What I Did
Install Eclipse Java EE (install classic if not caring about the Java EE/XML bits)
disable hungry views
disable outline (when you need one, just do CTRL+O)
disable call and type hierarchies
disable decorators
disable menu entries (right-
disable toolbar items
even better: hide the toolbar
disable hovers and actions associated with that
disable spell-checking
disable XML validation
disable Mylyn
disable non-needed search forms in CTRL+H dialog (I usually actually only use the "File Search" mode, sometimes the "Java" one)
disable usage reporting
disable unnecessary plugins or features
disables perspectives and plugins loaded automatically on startup
restrict internal limits:
some views have a scope (enclosing class, project, working set, workspace...)
some views and UI elements have boundaries (console/loggers, highlighters, markers...)
tweak the eclipse.ini to:
-clean the workspace (slower, but I tend to prefer to do that)
use G1GC
reduce memory usage (I noticed that I can perfectly live with -xss128k and -xmx384 with G1, for instance. YMMV, of course, as always with JVM tuning.)
use a server VM (and point directly to the VM's DLL)
Also disable views you don't need in the "Debug" and "Code Browsing" perspectives.
Sorry, I had actually saved all of these as a set of 3 lightweight perspectives to re-import everytime on my new project, but I cannot get my hands on them at the moment. If I ever find then, I'll add a link to them here.
Instead of going for a ready package from Eclipse Downloads, from the same page go for the Eclipse Installer. Currently available for Mac, Windows & the beloved Linux. Launch the Installer which should update (or not if you are lucky enough :) ). Select "Eclipse Platform" which is the absolute minimum from this IDE, set your other installation preferences and install.
After the download/installation process, I'd suggest your head to Help->Install New Software and search for the Eclipse Marketplace (Yes, even that is not included in this package) just to make your life a bit easier.
Get as minimal an installation as you can, and then remove whatever is left that you don't want.
Longer answer:
I played around a bit. Here's how I experimented:
Extract a clean eclipse*.zip to two different directories; call it eclipse and eclipse-bak. We'll only modify eclipse.
Before starting it the first time, remove some of the features from the features folder. I got rid of org.eclipse.cvs, org.eclipse.epp.\*, ...mylyn\*, ...wst\*.
Start up Eclipse to a workspace. Create in that workspace a Java project, debugging configuration, etc. Stuff that you would want to do and that will complain if we remove the wrong thing. Open up the Error Log view.
Close Eclipse. Remove something (or a group of things) from the plugins folder.
Open Eclipse. Check the error log to see if something you care about couldn't load. If it did, add those things back from eclipse-bak/plugins. If not, close Eclipse and return to step 4 for a new set of plugins.
Using this I got my configuration to still be able to edit and debug Java files, but including only these plugins:
com.ibm.icu*
org.apache.*
org.eclipse.compare*
org.eclipse.core*
org.eclipse.debug*
org.eclipse.draw2d*
org.eclipse.ecf*
org.eclipse.epp.package.java*
org.eclipse.equinox*
org.eclipse.help*
org.eclipse.jdt*
org.eclipse.jface*
org.eclipse.ltk*
org.eclipse.osgi*
org.eclipse.platform*
org.eclipse.rcp*
org.eclipse.search*
org.eclipse.team.core
org.eclipse.team.ui
org.eclipse.text
org.eclipse.ui*
org.eclipse.update*
org.hamcrest*
org.sat4j*
Most of that is core stuff, but you might be able to trim it down further. Notably gone are Mylyn, the usage collector, EMF, CVS, WST, even JUnit (though I think you should keep JUnit).
I feel you man, when working with Eclipse, the application is constantly trying to help.
Ignoring workspace corruptions, I spend my development time fighting all the "helpful" things Eclipse does.
XML is not that hard to read, but it still confuses the shit out of me when I get the XML designer.
All it does for me is add an extra manual step to click on the source tab.
Every time a new version of eclipse comes out they redesign the front page and the distributions.
At which time a new quest starts for finding a way to debloat Eclipse again.
I have the same experience with extensions to Eclipse by third parties and avoid them if at all possible.
WTP has somewhat usefull stuff, but overall I prefer a basic java eclipse.
It is a good idea start with the Platform Runtime Binary and add JDT.
Manually extracting the JDT runtime doesn't seem to work for me these days, so it it better to use the update client.
You can use the marketplace client, but personally I have always found it rather annoying.
An alternative is to use the director. The director can install JDT without starting the GUI.
Here is a script that downloads eclipse Oxygen 4.7.3a and installs JDT unnattended:
#!/bin/sh
die() {
echo >&2 "$#"
exit 1
}
[ "$#" -eq 1 ] || die "exactly 1 argument required [INSTALL_DIR]"
[ -e "$1" ] && die "*warning* Aborting! location exists, eclipse already installed?"
INSTALL_DIR="$1"
TARBALL=eclipse-platform-4.7.3a-linux-gtk-x86_64.tar.gz
mkdir -p $INSTALL_DIR
if [ ! -f $TARBALL ]
then
wget http://mirror.csclub.uwaterloo.ca/eclipse/eclipse/downloads/drops4/R-4.7.3a-201803300640/$TARBALL
fi
tar -v -xf "$TARBALL" -C "$INSTALL_DIR" --strip 1
echo "\nUsing director to install java development tools, this may take a while..."
$INSTALL_DIR/eclipse -noSplash -application org.eclipse.equinox.p2.director -repository http://download.eclipse.org/eclipse/updates/4.7 -installIUs org.eclipse.jdt.feature.group
Simply call the script with one argument, the directory you want Eclipse installed.
Running the script gives me an unpacked install of roughly 129MB, which is more than 100MB smaller than the default download (zipped).
That is not to say you would not be able to shrink it further, but it should rid you of most of the crap.
The executable will be cached for future executions of the script, but it will still be slow, since it needs to go online to download JDT.
Unfortunately, I do not know of a way to cache the plugin download in a local folder.
You could of course zip the created installation, but the script is easier to commit to git.
This script will only work for new users as long as the mirror stays up and will need some updates when a new version is released.
But I am sure most developers are savvy enough to update the script if need be.
If you only want to use Eclipse for editing / Debugging Java I would suggest using a plain Text editor. It seems an overkill to install Eclipse and not use most of its features.
A very popular choice is VIM. Also check out this SO link for tips in using VIM as a Java editor. You can also debug Java code with a command line debugger as mentioned in this SO link.
I have figured out how to get the lightest possible eclipse with minimal efforts(imo). For the reference this is what I want in my eclipse:
Java project with Maven support
JavaEE support(Servers)
Debugging of Java application
(Irrespective of these you can install any feature that comes with Eclipse IDE with minimal effort, just follow the guide below)
Here's how I get it:
Go to eclipse download packages (Here's the link)
Find MORE DOWNLOADS (right hand side) and go to Other builds (Here's the link)
Now go to any build you like (Usually Latest Downloads -> whatever the first Build Name. Also There is links for older versions and archive site)
Under Platform Runtime Binary you can download Eclipse Platform as per your OS and/or requirement.
Now extract the archive and run the eclipse
Go to Help -> Install New Software...
Using Work with you can install your desired plugins and tools which usually ships with bulky eclipse
In Work with drop down select the site(mostly first) similar like this 2022-03 - https://download.eclipse.org/releases/2022-03 here 2022-03 is my eclipse version you may see different depending your version.
Now you can select the group(s) or expand the group(s) and select the specific plugins which you need and also you can filter by name like maven, debug, server, marketplace client etc in filter text input just below the Work with drop-down menu.
Install plugins and enjoy your very own lightweight eclipse.
Visual Studio Code
Fast forward to 2019 and we now can use Visual Studio Code with Java plugins. They provide a plugin pack to get you started with lightweight debugger and auto complete. Other plugins include maven integration, dependency viewer and more.
Visual Studio Code is a new(ish) editor/mini-ide from Microsoft which runs on Win/Max/Linux and has plugins for many languages.
Tutorial for setup: https://blog.usejournal.com/visual-studio-code-for-java-the-ultimate-guide-2019-8de7d2b59902
Edit 2019-06-21: MS now has a dedicated installer for Java integration with VS Code, including Spring Boot support as well. While the Intelisense is not 100%, it's vastly improved and now my go-to Java editor for testing and trying new things. Announcing the Visual Studio Code Installer for Java