Eclipse IDE; Open in current window / instance? - eclipse

I've been using Eclipse for about a week now and I'm loving it.. great software for the 'price'. :P However, I'm having a few issues getting started.
The most annoying, so far, has been opening files from outside of Eclipse, and having them set to open w/ Eclipse. When I open a file from the file-explorer or an external application (WinSCP for instance), Eclipse seemingly attempts to open an entirely new instance itself rather than opening the file within a currently running instance. Of course, because this is the case, Eclipse errors out w/ 'The workspace is currently in use. Please select another' (or whatever it says).
Is there a configuration option, or an argument that I can use when opening a file externally that will simply use the currently open instance of Eclipse?
Thx in advance! :)

The easiest way to open external file in the current Eclipse is to drag-n-drop it to the tabbed area where your files are displayed. You should consider that Eclipse is seriously geared towards using files as part of a project and opening random file with Eclipse is certainly possible but not encouraged.
To your question - since Eclipse runs in Java if you attempt to use eclipse.exe to open a file then script will always try to open a new instance, I don't know if what you want is actually doable

To add to DroidIn.net's answer, here are a few eclipse bugs related to the question:
bug 4922 (from 2001!): "Need ability to open a file in eclipse from the command line", with sockent-monitoring kind of solutions, like the IBM proposition of opening an RCP from an URL, which leads to plugins like EclipseCalls.
EclipseCall is a plugin that accepts file-open requests on a defined socket port. A specialized client can be used to open a file in Eclipse by command from outside Eclipse, e.g. by double clicking a source file in Windows Explorer.
bug 178927 (2007): "way to pass arguments from launcher to a running application instance", based on a modifier launcher (more Windows-oriented, although bug 201154 is mac-oriented). An OSGi-based solution is also investigated.
(On Linux, see also steb)

In a Mac terminal, you can use open, though I needed to point to the executable explicitly, since I have more than one Eclipse installed:
open -a ~/eclipse/java-oxygen/Eclipse.app --args --launcher.openFile filename
You may or may not need --launcher.openFile, depending if you have --launcher.defaultAction set to openFile in your eclipse.ini file. (This config-file edit is also what you need for double-clicking or "open-with" to use the running Eclipse.)
For instance, I could do this (with gnu parallel) to open all of my failing tests after I'd copied to the clipboard (pbpaste is mac-specific):
pbpaste | parallel find . -name {}\\\* -print \
| parallel open -a ~/eclipse/java-oxygen/Eclipse.app
The Eclipse file-opening documentation for all OSes is here.

Related

NIOS II IDE unsuably slow

I've installed Quartus and NIOS II IDE on my Linux machine. Originally I tried importing an existing NIOS II Project into Eclipse, but it just sits there spinning away and eventually tells me it can't import the project because it already exists.
I tried installing everything on a Win10 machine and the project imported OK. I did notice that some of the paths in the orignal project have backslashes. So, for example:
#include "..\subfolder\include_file.h"
Kind of thing. I wonder whether maybe it was that was causing issues.
So, I then tried creating an hello world NIOS Processor in Quartus and making a NIOS II project from scratch. Every step along the way with Eclipse was grindingly slow, but eventually worked up until the point I was able to hit Finish at which point it's just hanging with the little circle with red and blue arrows spinning round and round.
I also have a pop up window with a long list of:
Remote System Explorer Opertion
lines, and at the top it says:
The user operation is waiting for background work to complete
It seems like everything is installed correctly, I can open the NIOS II Eclipse IDE from Quartus for example. Quartus itself works nicely.
I used these instructions to installed Eclipse:
Is anyone able to give me any pointers as to why this is so incredibly slow please? My Linux machine is pretty high spec and flies. Nothing else whatsoever even vaguely struggles on it.
If there's anything I can try to give diagnostic info, am more than happy to supply. Thanks!
I found a solution here
https://askubuntu.com/questions/761604/eclipse-not-working-in-16-04
To test if this fix works, try opening a terminal, and doing
$export SWT_GTK3=0
then run eclipse-nios2. That is, do something like
$ ~/intelFPGA_lite/20.1/nios2eds/bin/eclipse-nios2
If that fixes the problem then to make the fix permanent edit eclipse.ini which for me is in intelFPGA_lite/20.1/nios2eds/bin/eclipse_nios2
In that file, between the lines openFile and --launcher.appendVmargs
insert
--launcher.GTK_version
2
So it reads:
openFile
--launcher.GTK_version
2
--launcher.appendVmargs
and save.
Worked for me!
Try using Visual Studio Code instead. It can do (almost) everything that Eclipse can do, with the added benefit that you can debug remote. E.g. in my setup, I develop exclusively using macOS. I have Quartus installed in a Ubuntu 20.04 VM and VSCODE allows me to develop and debug as if I'm running Quartus natively in macOS.
I'll provide a rough 'how-to' below.
I strongly suggest using a Ubuntu environment for Quartus (other linux environments should work too: I've tested Arch and Manjaro). The Windows install is a royal pain to get working, regardless of IDE choice. I haven't tried the Windows version since 20.1 but nothing worked out of the box and it took many hours or messing with config files to fix it. Also, the Windows version isn't native anyway - it's actually running in Ubuntu via WSL.
Make sure you have installed your required version of Quartus - this should work for Pro, Standard and Lite editions. You can skip the manual installation of NiosII Build Tools for Eclipse if you'd like but I would actually recommend installing it. It can still be useful, if only for creating a new project, BSP etc.
Install VSCODE along with the C/C++ Extension provided by Microsoft (and the Visual Studio Code Remote - SSH extension if you intend to use that feature)
Create a new project using Eclipse (or skip, if you already have a project)
Open VSCODE, select open and navigate to the software directory of your project.
VSCODE will open your project and you should see your application directory and BSP directory.
From here, you can work on your code with full linting, auto completion etc.
If you need to regenerate your BSP, you can either do that using Eclipse or just run the command-line tool instead.
Compiling
If you allowed Eclipse to create your project for you, it will have produced a makefile in your application directory. Compiling is as simple as running 'make' from the application directory. I like to keep a terminal window open within VSCODE so I can run various tools as I work so this is usually how I can compile code. If, instead, you'd like to integrate this into VSCODE, you can define a task (https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/editor/tasks).
Eclipse automatically adds new sources that you create to the makefile. VSCODE won't do this - however, I personally don't think this is a bad thing. I don't like IDEs messing with my makefiles, I want fully control over them myself. So when you create a new source file, just remember to add it to the makefile. There is probably a way to get VSCODE to add sources files automatically (you can run commands on save etc) - but I have no motivation to try to figure this out.
Debugging
It is also possible to debug Nios2 software live on the target via the USB-Blaster using VSCODE. To do this, open the launch.json file in the .vscode folder of your project. If this file does not exist, just create it. The path should be:
<project root dir>/.vscode/launch.json
Copy the following into the launch.json file:
{
"version": "0.2.0",
"configurations": [
{
"name": "app",
"type": "cppdbg",
"request": "launch",
"program": "${workspaceFolder}/app/app.elf",
"stopAtEntry": true,
"cwd": "${workspaceFolder}",
"MIMode": "gdb",
"miDebuggerServerAddress": "localhost:2334",
"miDebuggerPath": "/PATH/TO/intelFPGA/20.1/nios2eds/bin/gnu/H-x86_64-pc-linux-gnu/bin/nios2-elf-gdb",
"debugServerPath": "/PATH/TO/intelFPGA/20.1/quartus/bin/nios2-gdb-server",
"debugServerArgs": "--tcpport 2334 --reset-target --tcppersist",
}
]
}
This file is a list of debug targets and settings. You can add any number of configurations here, but easiest to just start with one for now. The configuration above is called 'app', you can change this to suit your own project if you wish.
Update the "program" entry with the path to your applications elf
file
Update the "miDebuggerPath" path with the path the nios2-elf-gdb on
your system. This is the gdb client for Nios2
Update the "debugServerPath" path with the path the nios2-gdb-server.
This is the gdb server for Nios2
Save the file and now click on the "run and debug" button on the left
side control panel in VSCODE
You'll see play button at the top of the screen next to the configuration you just defined in launch.json. Hit the play button - this will start an instance of the gdb server, followed by the gdb client and connect the two. If all goes well, your target will run and stop in main.
VSCODE will provide you with a set of debug tools for stepping, watching variables, call stack - all that good stuff. On the right hand side, you can view the debug console which will allow you to enter commands directly into the gdb console. Note, you have to prepend your commands with -exec. E.g. to print the value of a variable x, you would type:
-exec print x
Caveat
There is a problem with this debugging method: nios2-gdb-server doesn't always exit cleanly and as a result the port doesn't close. If you try to start another debug session, the server won't start because the port is in use. Eclipse solves this problem by randomizing the port everytime it launches the gdb. I have not found a way to do that VSCODE yet.
I find easiest way around this is to run the gdb server manually when I need it. Comment out the two 'debugServer' lines above. Open a second terminal in VSCODE and run:
nios2-gdb-server --tcpport 2334 --reset-target --tcppersist
This will keep the server running even when you stop debugging. If you start another debug session, it will reconnect to the same server instance.
Update: rioV8 provided a helpful solution to this problem which involves using a vscode extension to generate a random environment variable which can used be used in place of the port numbers. The solution is here.

Install VSCode in a specific folder

I just downloaded the Visual Studio Code App from https://code.visualstudio.com/ and when I tried to install it, it simply just installed it by itself, without the option to change the installation path.
I have an external harddrive, which is where I want the IDE to be placed instead of the Local Harddrive. How can I change this?
On the VSCode download page select "System Installer" instead of "User Installer". The System installer will prompt you for the install location.
Full credit to Hans Passant for giving the following working solution as a comment.
The installer does very little beyond copying the files, it just creates some Explorer context menu shortcuts ("Open with Code"). Otherwise following Chromium conventions and copying itself to c:\Users\yourname\AppData\Local\Code\app-0.1.0 so it can update itself without you noticing. Boo. So high odds that simply moving that folder to the other drive works just fine, put it anywhere and create a shortcut to Code.exe. If you still want the context menu entry to work then use Regedit and search for "code\app-0.1.0".

How to make Eclipse behave well in the Windows 7 taskbar?

All other apps that can be pinned to the taskbar behave well.
But Eclipse doesn't show recently open projects when I right click it.
It also doesn't allow to pin some projects inside it.
Note that I have the JS version of Eclipse Helios. Which spawns a new and different taskbar icon after loading.
Specify the latest available Java VM in your eclipse.ini. I.e.:
-vm
jdk1.6.0_10\jre\bin\client\jvm.dll
Make sure they are on separate lines
Anything after the "vmargs" is taken to be vm arguments
(More info)
Or alternatively add the java bin folder to your Windows PATH before the "windows32" folder, because otherwise eclipse uses "javaw.exe" in the win32 folder instead of the JDK one.
Riccardo's solution from the Eclipse bug report worked for me, but I don't get recently opened projects, etc. from the task bar. Is anyone experiencing that these workarounds restore that behavior?
I have the same problem on Windows 7 x64 with Helios x64, but for me
the following workaround works with the option "Always combine, hide
labels" for taskbar buttons.
Check your "eclipse.ini" for the specified VM and make sure the path points to the bin directory of your JDK or JRE (and not to javaw.exe).
For me the argument is "D:/Development/Languages/Java/Development
Kit/bin/" without quotes.
Unpin Eclipse from the taskbar or delete the shortcut
Run "eclipse.exe" from the explorer and choose your workspace
Pin Eclipse to the taskbar after the splash screen was loaded and when the main window is shown
setting eclipse.exe to compatibility mode works
I just want to add this for the Win10 users.
Edit eclipse.ini to add these lines at the end before the line --launcher.appendVmargs:
-vm
C:/Program Files/Java/jdk1.8.0/jre/bin/server/jvm.dll
You need set the compatibility to Windows Vista as well in order for it to work.
I think it's important to mention that at least for me it was important to add the path to the vm in the eclipse.ini with forward slashes, even though I'm working with Windows (7, that is). Eclipse didn't start when I used backslashes.
The solutions offered here on StackOverflow so far, don't have an easy fix for running multiple Eclipses while each having their own Application ID, and making grouping of icons work as expected. The answer here does provide a reference to the underlying System.AppUserModel.ID property.
Here's a quick HOWTO:
Do the -vm setting as plenty of people here have mentioned
Run the eclipse app
Right click on the running taskbar icon, Pin this program to taskbar
Navigate to %AppData%\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\User Pinned\Taskbar
Copy the newly created shortcut to another location. It will be named eclipse, eclipse (2), or eclipse (3) and so on
Right click on the running taskbar icon, Unpin this program from taskbar
Use the Shortcut Properties dialog to copy all individual fields (target + parameters, workdir, icon, anything else) to the new shortcut
Rename the new shortcut
Drag the new shortcut to the Windows Taskbar
Done
Here's an extended HOWTO, helpful if you want icon grouping separated per individual Eclipse instance (if you have multiple instances running):
Find out what your startup plugin is, for example org.eclipse.epp.package.java_2.0.1.20130919-0803. Open the plugin.xml file of that folder.
Edit the following XML location in that file: /plugin/extension/product/property[#name="appName"], set attribute value to something else. Don't use spaces, keep length below (up until) 40.
Optionally also set the window title: /plugin/extension/product/property[#name], set attribute name to something else.
In your existing Eclipse shortcut, append -clean and run it once. You will notice the //product/property[#name] attribute being used in the Eclipse window title. Afterwards, you can remove -clean again.
Follow the quick HOWTO above
A quick explanation on What's going on here:
Inside the .lnk file, an attribute is stored, which can't be entered by using the windows Shortcut Property dialog. If you copy a .lnk file, the attribute will copy with it.
Windows groups by identical System.AppUserModel.ID property, AppID for short
Eclipse does not have an AppID at startup. First the JVM is started, then the eclipse core/platform is started, and then the startup plugin is loaded. In this last stage, an API call is done to set the AppID to the value inside a plugin.xml file. See above: extended HOWTO item 2
When you drag a manually created shortcut .lnk file to the taskbar, it makes sense that windows can't put this AppID into the new 'pinned' version of the .lnk file. It can only be detected at runtime.
When you start an Eclipse application, right click on the running taskbar icon, Pin this program to taskbar -> then Windows will detect the AppID and store it in the 'pinned' .lnk. But, partly because of the JVM process redirection, Windows does not detect the command-line parameters, environment, working folder (at startup at least), and the icon path + icon index. So you have to:
Do a file copy of the .lnk file and fill in the missing gaps yourself
Or, use a shortcut creation tool that understands System.AppUserModel.ID properties (there are plenty)
Or, use the Windows API directly
Sincerely hope this will reduce the amount of haywire Eclipse taskbars icons on the workstations around me,
Cheers, TW
Recently Timo Kinnunen has pinpointed the problem
Edit eclipse.ini find the line:
--launcher.appendVmargs:
and change it to
--launcher.appendVmargs:-vm <PATH_TO_JAVA>/jdk1.8.0/jre/bin/server/jvm.dll
This causes the JVM to be launched in the same process as eclipse.exe rather than as a child process and avoids the intricacies of Host Processes with AppUserModelIDs.
And it works !!!

Launch terminal from eclipse

I recently switched to Eclipse (Helios) for my programming needs, and I like it very much.
There is just on thing that is driving me crazy, how can I launch (compile and run) my code into the native mac osx terminal.
I tried creating an "external tools configuration", but that just starts the terminal without outputting the application.
What I do now is right-click on the binary in the Project Explorer and then "Open With" and then "Other" and then I pick the terminal app from the list. But this solution is driving me nuts.
Please help.
It's all about defining the External Tool correctly.
For example, the following should work if your selected file is a Unix executable.
Open a new External Tool configuration.
Set the location to /usr/bin/open
Set Working directory as ${selected_resource_loc}
Set the arguments to -a /Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app ${selected_resource_loc}
When you run make sure you select "src"
This should work. You could improve it further. You could even write an AppleScript that would do that and run it using osascript.

Open multiple Eclipse workspaces on the Mac

How can I open multiple Eclipse workspaces at the same time on the Mac?
On other platforms, I can just launch extra Eclipse instances, but the Mac will not let me open the same application twice. Is there a better way than keeping two copies of Eclipse?
This seems to be the supported native method in OS X:
cd /Applications/eclipse/
open -n Eclipse.app
Be sure to specify the ".app" version (directory); in OS X Mountain Lion erroneously using the symbolic link such as open -n eclipse, might get one GateKeeper stopping access:
"eclipse" can't be opened because it is from an unidentified developer.
Your security preferences allow installation of only apps from the Mac App Store and identified developers.
Even removing the extended attribute com.apple.quarantine does not fix that. Instead, simply using the ".app" version will rely on your previous consent, or prompt you once:
"Eclipse" is an application downloaded from the Internet. Are you sure you want to open it?
By far the best solution is the OSX Eclipse Launcher presented in http://torkild.resheim.no/2012/08/opening-multiple-eclipse-instances-on.html It can be downloaded in the Marketplace http://marketplace.eclipse.org/content/osx-eclipse-launcher#.UGWfRRjCaHk
I use it everyday and like it very much! To demonstrate the simplicity of usage just take a look at the following image:
EDIT: Milhous's answer seems to be the officially supported way to do this as of 10.5. Earlier version of OS X and even 10.5 and up should still work using the following instructions though.
Open the command line (Terminal)
Navigate to your Eclipse installation folder, for instance:
cd /Applications/eclipse/
cd /Developer/Eclipse/Eclipse.app/Contents/MacOS/eclipse
cd /Applications/eclipse/Eclipse.app/Contents/MacOS/eclipse
cd /Users/<usernamehere>/eclipse/jee-neon/Eclipse.app/Contents/MacOS
Launch Eclipse: ./eclipse &
This last command will launch eclipse and immediately background the process.
Rinse and repeat to open as many unique instances of Eclipse as you want.
Warning
You might have to change the Tomcat server ports in order to run your project in different/multiple Tomcat instances, see Tomcat Server Error - Port 8080 already in use
To make this you need to navigate to the Eclipse.app directory and use the following command:
open -n Eclipse.app
Actually a much better (GUI) solution is to copy the Eclipse.app to e.g. Eclipse2.app and you'll have two Eclipse icons in Dock as well as Eclipse2 in Spotlight. Repeat as necessary.
If the question is how to easily use Eclipse with multiple different workspaces, then you have to use a kludge because shortcuts in OS X do not provide a mechanism for passing command line arguments, for example the "--data" argument that Eclipse takes to specify the workspace. While there may be different reasons to create a duplicate copy of your Eclipse install, doing it for this purpose is, IMNSHO, lame (now you have to maintain multiple eclipse configurations, plugins, etc?).
In any case, here is a workaround. Create the following script in the (single) Eclipse directory (the directory that contains Eclipse.app), and give it a ".command" suffix (e.g. eclipse-workspace2.command) so that you can create an alias from it:
#!/bin/sh
# open, as suggested by Milhous
open -n $(dirname $0)/Eclipse.app --args -data /path/to/your/other/workspace
Now create an alias to that file on your desktop or wherever you want it.
You will probably have to repeat this process for each different workspace, but at least it will use the same Eclipse installation.
2018 Update since many answers are no longer valid
OS X Heigh Sierra (10.13) with Eclipse Oxygen
Go to wherever your Eclipse is installed. Right-click -> Show Package Contents -> Contents -> MacOS -> Double-click the executable called eclipse
A terminal window will open and a new instance of eclipse will start.
Note that if you close the terminal window, the new Eclipse instance will be closed also.
To make your life easier, you can drag the executable to your dock for easy access
Instead of copying Eclipse.app around, create an automator that runs the shell script above.
Run automator, create Application.
choose Utilities->Run shell script, and add in the above script (need full path to eclipse)
Then you can drag this to your Dock as a normal app.
Repeat for other workspaces.
You can even simply change the icon - https://discussions.apple.com/message/699288?messageID=699288&#699288
One another way is just to duplicate only the "Eclipse.app" file instead of making multiple copies of entire eclipse directory. Right-Click on the "Eclipse.app" file and click the duplicate option to create a duplicate.
If you're like me, you probably have terminal running most of the time as well.
You could just create an alias in /Users//.bash_profile like this
alias eclipse='open -n path_to_eclipse.app'
then all you have to do is just open the terminal and type eclipse.
Based on a previous answer that helped me, but different directory:
cd /Applications/Eclipse.app/Contents/MacOS
./eclipse &
Thanks
You can create an AppleScript file to open Eclipse with a given workspace. You can even save the AppleScript file as an Application, which is equivalent to creating an alias with arguments in Windows OS.
Open Script Editor and type the following:
do shell script "open '/path/to/your/Eclipse/installation' -n --args -data /path/to/your/workspace"
For instance:
do shell script "open '/Applications/Eclipse.app' -n --args -data /MyWorkspaces/Personal"
Press the Run button to check it's working.
This script can be saved as such, but I prefer to save it as an Application. That way I can customize the icon by copying the *.icns icon from the original Eclipse.app bundle to the script application bundle.
To open an App folder, use the "see contents" contextual menu option. It should look like this:
Where "main.scpt" is the AppleScript file and "applet.icns" is the icon from the original Eclipse bundle.
Launch terminal and run open -n /Applications/Eclipse.app for a new instance.
I found this solution a while back, can't remember where but it still seems to work well for me.
Create a copy of Eclipse.app for each workspace you want to work in (for this example ProjectB.app), then open ProjectB.app/Contents/MacOS/eclipse.ini and add these two lines at the beginning of the file:
-data
/Users/eric/Workspaces/projectb
... substituting where your workspace is located. When you launch ProjectB.app it will automatically start with that workspace instead of prompting for a location, and you should be able to run it at the same time as other Eclipse instances with no problem.
In Terminal simply paste below line and hit enter ..
/Applications/Eclipse.app/Contents/MacOS/eclipse ; exit;
If you want to open multiple workspaces and you are not a terminal guy, just locate the Unix executable file in your eclipse folder and click it.
The path to the said file is
Eclipse(folder) -> eclipse(right click) -> Show package
Contents -> Contents -> MacOs -> eclipse(unix executable file)
Clicking on this executable will open a separate instance of eclipse.
A more convenient way:
Create an executable script as mentioned above:
#!/bin/sh
cd /Applications/Adobe\ Flash\ Builder\ 4.6
open -n Adobe\ Flash\ Builder\ 4.6.app
In you current instance of Flashbuilder or Eclipse, add a new external tool configuration. This is the button next to the debug/run/profile buttons on your toolbar. In that dialog, click on "Program" and add a new one. Give it the name you want and in the "Location" field, put the path to the script from step 1:
/Users/username/bin/flashbuilder
You can stop at step 2, but I prefer adding a custom icon to the toolbar. I use a the Quick Launch plugin to do that:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/quicklaunch/files/
After adding the plugin, go to "Run"->"Organize Quick Lauches" and add the external tool config from step 2. Then you can configure the icon for it.
After you save that, you'll see the icon in your toolbar. Now you can just click it every time you want a new Flashbuilder/Eclipse instance.
You can run multiple instances of Eclipse by creating a pseudonym for Eclipse application in it's folder and using it for running new Eclipse instance
Lets try downloading this in your eclipse on Mac you will be able to open multiple eclipse at a time Link
Name : macOS Eclipse Launcher
Steps :
Go to eclipse Market place.
Search for "macOS Eclipse Launcher" and install.
It will restart .
Now under file menu check for open option > there you will find other projects to open also at same time .
Window -> New Window
This opens a new window and you can then open another project in it. You can use this as a workaround hopefully.
It actually allows you to work in same workspace.