How to change the *default* default encoding in Eclipse? - eclipse

Question

Every time a new workspace is created, Eclipse defaults to Cp1250 encoding.
Whenever I create a new branch of the project, and as result switch to a new workspace in Eclipse, I need to go to Window -> Preferences -> General -> Workspace : Text file encoding and manually switch to "Other: UTF-8". If I forget this step, Eclipse mangles the UTF-8 characters in the project files.
Can I change the default somehow, permanently, so that all new workspaces start as UTF-8 without need to switch them manually?

Answer 1

Actually, it is quite simple:
Create a defaults.ini file in the Eclipse configuration folder. For example, if Eclipse is installed in C:/Eclipse create C:/Eclipse/configuration/defaults.ini. The file should contain:
org.eclipse.core.resources/encoding=UTF-8
If you want to set the line terminator to UNIX values you can also add:
org.eclipse.core.runtime/line.separator=\n
In eclipse.ini in the Eclipse install folder (e.g., C:/Eclipse) add the following lines:
-plugincustomization
D:/Java/Eclipse/configuration/defaults.ini
You might need to play around with where you put it. Inserting it before the "-product" option seemed to work.

Answer 2

This appears to be determined by this code in org.eclipse.ui.WorkbenchEncoding:
/**
* Get the default encoding from the virtual machine.
*/
public static String getWorkbenchDefaultEncoding() {
return System.getProperty("file.encoding", "UTF-8");
}
So it is taken from the 'file.encoding' environment variable, defaulting to 'UTF-8' if that is not set.

Answer 3

This is one of the key things that Eclipse Oomph was created to solve, the ability to set default default preferences, i.e. preferences set across workspaces.
You can go "whole hog" and adopt using Oomph as a full Eclipse Installer and share the install scripts between your team members. The installer can configure everything from which plug-ins to install, to default preference values, to where to check code out from.
Preference Recorder
However, for now you can simply use the Preference Recorder.
Install Oomph, it is possibly already installed if you are using Eclipse Mars. If not, from the Mars update site you can install "Oomph Preference Management"
Open the preferences page, you should now have a new icon next to Help in the bottom left. It will allow you to turn on/off the preference recorder:
With the recorder on, change your preferences you want, in this case your encoding, then press OK. You will then be asked if you want to track the changed preferences across your workspaces. You can change the values in the User Policy column.
Now if you create a new workspace, those tracked preferences will be applied to the new workspace.
If you want to see what is being recorded, in Preferences, see Oomph -> Setup Tasks -> Preference Recorder
To access the full setup configuration, press the button to the right of the Record Into drop-down (top right of UI) and the setup file will be opened in the editor, where you can do further control and mods:
PS. the default default of the encoding is a hotly contested issue at Eclipse, hopefully the default default will change to UTF-8 everywhere.

Answer 4

in eclipse.ini add :
-Dfile.encoding=UTF-8