I've recently learned that the import section from feature.xml is legacy, and the actual dependency work is delegated to the p2 engine, which uses the information from the plugin manifest.
I am not sure though if p2 is available for all recent versions of Eclipse, or in all Eclipse-based products, so I'm not sure if it is safe to remove the import section from feature.xml.
Under what circumstances is it safe to remove the import section from feature.xml? Assume that we are taking into consideration Eclipse 3.4 or newer.
P2 was introduced in Eclipse 3.4 release. It had quite a few issues in that release, so a way was given to revert your Eclipse install to using the legacy Update Manager. Starting with 3.5 release, p2 is quite stable and is a definite improvement over the old Update Manager. I am not certain if it is possible to revert to the Update Manager in 3.5 or higher release. I certainly haven't heard of anyone doing this.
P2 is present in all Eclipse packages starting with 3.4 release.
I wouldn't categorize feature import as a deprecated feature. You would still want to use it to pull in plugins when you don't have direct OSGi dependency on them.
Consider the case where you are building an extension to JDT. Say you only depend on JDT core api (no UI extensions). If you only rely on OSGi dependencies, when your plugin is installed, p2 will dutifully install JDT core bundle, but not the UI bundle. Perfectly fine from OSGi perspective, but probably not what you intended.
I recommend sticking with feature import to describe your high level dependencies to make sure that they are installed in full. Relying only on OSGi dependencies works best for free-floating bundles that aren't part of something bigger that should be installed as a unit.
Related
I'm attempting to utilize the "Project References" feature in Eclipse for an embedded firmware project. I'm using Code Composer Studio 7.0 which is essentially just a wrapper for Eclipse 4.6 with CDT 9.0 and JRE 8. However, from what I can tell the features I'm trying to use are specific to the CDT. The embedded firmware is broken up into several parts with a few libraries, an RTOS platform, and the "core" firmware.
The intention is that the dependencies of a project are automatically built and updated in the proper order whenever a build on the core firmware project is triggered. However, due to some libraries building upon others I'm seeing some weird behavior that i don't quite understand. The dependency graph is shown below.
As you can see, there's a maximum of four levels of dependency. The issue that I'm seeing is that, while I've ordered the references in the order "Properties->C/C++ General->Paths and Symbols->References" as [Platform, PAL, HAL, Features] for the firmware project, the build order doesn't seem to follow that specification. The ordering seems to be semi-random. After a clean sometimes the PAL will build first, other times the Features will. The entire build ultimately fails when this happens due to dependencies not being accessible. Is there an additional step I'm missing to get dependencies to build in the correct order, or are nested dependencies not supported by Eclipse for some reason?
I use Tycho (currently v0.24) to build a p2 repository, containing a feature which in turn contains a plug-in.
The manifest of the plug-in states that it requres Java 1.8
Bundle-RequiredExecutionEnvironment: JavaSE-1.8
If I use the Install New Software wizard of the Eclipse IDE to install this feature, it allows to install it even though the JRE that Eclipse is running on does not meet the required execution environment.
After restarting Eclipse, the just installed plug-ins are simply not picked up - quite rightfully so because of the unresolved requirement. But unaware users will wonder why the hell the installed feature doesn't show up.
Therefore I think there should be at least a warning in this case. I've opened also this bug but didn't get a respoonse so far.
In the meanwhile, is it possible to do something so that an attempt to install the feature on an unsupported JRE will fail?
I'm suffering from the version conflict on Eclipse.
I want to use the following two plugins in one Eclipse instance.
org.abc.plugin1a
has a dependency on org.eclipse.plugin1b_1.0.0
(works well only with version 1.0.0, not work with the newer version!)
impossible to be maintained because of a certain reason
org.eclipse.plugin2a
has a dependency on org.eclipse.plugin1b_2.0.0 (or newer)
Actually org.abc.plugin1a was developed experimentally by an ex-employee, not by me. The source codes are available but too complicated.
I found there are huge differences between org.eclipse.plugin1b_1.0.0 and 2.0.0.
So it is almost impossible for me to update org.abc.plugin1a to work with org.eclipse.plugin1b_2.0.0
Is there any answer to solve my problem?
Specify both the minimum and maximum version of the plugin in the Require-Bundle:
Require-Bundle: org.eclipse.plugin1b_1.0.0;bundle-version="[1.0.0,1.0.0]"
This will not work if plugin org.eclipse.plugin1b is marked as a singleton since in that case Eclipse will only load one version of the plugin.
I'm trying to install an Eclipse Product into an existing Eclipse installation using a third-party-tool (namely the IBM Installation Manager) but it fails with several errors of the kind
CRIMA1054E: Installing bundle "org.eclipse.equinox.p2.repository.tools_2.0.1.R36x_v20100823" into this existing Eclipse installation does not meet the version tolerance of "[2.0.100,3.0.0)" for the existing bundle "org.eclipse.pde.ui"
Unfortunately, I can't disclose any specifics on the affected product, so I'd like to turn this into a more general question.
Following some research on the Eclipse platform, my understanding is that it is one of the key features of the OSGi Specification, that one should be able install multiple versions of the same bundle (≘ plugin?) into the same environment. If the bundle org.eclipse.pde.ui is already present, I assume that also its required version of the [...].p2.repository.tools is already available.
My question: Why should it be a problem to just add another version of that plugin to the environment? Am I getting something terribly wrong about Eclipse and OSGi?
Side question: Shouldn't version 2.0.1.R36[...] be inside [2.0.100,3.0.0) anyway? Doesn't really affect my main question though, because I have other examples that are clearly out of tolerance.
Some initial thoughts and theories
Even though Eclipse allows parallel versions of a plugin, some plugins still conflict with other versions of themselves. Still, then I would expect more of an error like "[...].repository.tools_x is incompatible with [...].repository.tools_y which is required by existing bundle org.eclipse.pde.ui"
The installation is not blocked by Eclipse but by the IBM Installation Manager. It probably does some internal dependency checking but is too lazy to consider parallel bundle version installs.
Again regarding that specific product: Unfortunately the product is not available through the regular Eclipse software installation mechanism. I also would like to avoid dropping it into my Eclipse manually because I'm dependent on regular updates and those are only delivered through the IBM Installation Manager.
Any Eclipse plug-ins that contribute UI must have the singleton directive set to true. This means that only one bundle with that symbolic name can be in the framework, see http://wiki.osgi.org/wiki/Bundle-SymbolicName for more info.
I went and inspected the org.eclipse.equinox.p2.repository.tools bundle in my version of Eclipse (3.8), and I can see that it does indeed have singleton=true.
You said: "2.0.1.R36[...] be inside [2.0.100,3.0.0)"
That's not the case, as 2.0.1 is < 2.0.100.
I am struggling with this!
While trying to install some features - eclipse keeps complaining about some dependency not met and about old version of some dependencies. The messages are rather not straigtforward.
Is there a way to clean the eclipse installation of the unused plugins? Does eclipse tell you on its own as to which features/plugins have not been used (for a while)?
What would be the definition of an unused plugin? All plugins that Eclipse update manager is referencing are currently in use because they were installed directly or are referenced by plugins that were installed directly.
I am not aware of anything that would actively track which features you are utilizing while using Eclipse and then report on unneeded plugins.
The error that you are running into typically happens because plugin A that you have depends on plugin X v1 and you are trying to install plugin B that requires X v2. Since both v1 and v2 of X cannot be simultaneously installed, installation of B aborts.
Here are the two most common causes of users finding themselves in this situation:
You haven't run "search for updates" recently, so many of your plugins are on older service levels. The plugin you are installing, however, requires a newer service level of a particular plugin. Resolve by updating your installation prior to trying to install the new plugin.
The plugin you are trying to install was not designed to be compatible with the major version of Eclipse that you are running. For instance, you might be running Eclipse "Galileo" 3.5 platform while the plugin you are trying to install was designed to work with Eclipse "Helios" 3.6 platform. You cannot use the update manager to move between major releases. Pay attention to what yearly release the plugin advertises support for. If it needs a newer version and you are willing to upgrade, you will need to download a new package.
Outside of that, post a new question with specific failure message you are getting along with details about your current installation and what you are trying to install. Someone here ought to be able to translate the installation failure into resolution options for you.