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by Vasanth Dharmaraj.
Original Post: Eclipse Tip: Keeping plugins and workspace separate
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I always work with the latest integration build of Eclipse.
So naturally I update my eclipse quite frequently. This becomes a pain if you are
using a lot of plugins like me. So I googled and found a way to have your plugins
in a separate folder.
Here is how to do it:
1. Create a folder called 'links' in your eclipse directory.
2. Create a file with the extension .link, say plugins.link.
3. Open the file and add a line 'path=c:\\myplugins' and save the file.
4. Create the directory mentioned in the link file. (c:\myplugins)
5. Create a sub directory named 'eclipse' in the above directory. (c:\myplugins\eclipse)
6. Create a couple of sub directories named 'features' and 'plugins' in
the above directory. (c:\myplugins\eclipse\features & c:\myplugins\eclipse\plugins)
7. Now put all the third party plugins in these directories.
8. (Re)start eclipse and voilà all the plugins in the separate directory are
loaded.
Now when updating eclipse you can delete all files and folders other than the 'links' and
unzip the new eclipse build. As easy as that. Well almost there is another folder
called 'workspace' in the eclipse folder. You would want to retain this folder
to preserve all the configuration and project information. There is a easy solution
for this too. When starting up eclipse use the following command line parameter to
specify an alternate location for your 'workspace'
eclipse.exe -data c:\myworkspace
Be sure to move the contents of the previous workspace location to prevent losing
all the settings and projects.
Disclaimer: I have tested this only on windows 2000. Be sure to back
up all your data before proceeding.
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