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How to export installed plugins from eclipse?

I want to use some of my installed plugins in another eclipse machine.

I don't want to download those again.

Regards

Alpine
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Nav
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9 Answers9

58

Start fresh and install plugins from an old install

The idea here is that you want to keep your old install intact, download a new indigo package (http://download.eclipse.org/) and just adds the existing plugins to your install. With Indigo this is now made super easy!

Step 1: Download and unzip your Indigo install: http://download.eclipse.org

Step 2: Import your plug-ins from your previous install by doing File > Import > Install > From existing install, pick your old install, select the plug-ins and there you go! You can chose to go piece meal, or chose to pick several entries, in any event dependency analysis will be performed to check the validity of the install.

Step 3: Click next a couple times and patiently wait for the bytes to download to your machine. Then restart and enjoy!

from http://lenettoyeur-on-eclipse.blogspot.com/2011/06/from-helios-to-indigo-is-easy.html

sergiofbsilva
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    This is new in Eclipse 3.7... And very, very valuable :-) – Tonny Madsen Jul 18 '11 at 19:05
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    Tried to migrate my Eclipse 3.7 plugins from Windows 7 to Mac OS Yosemite with this approach and it didn't work. This worked: File->Export->Install. Then export All Available Sites-> bookmarks.xml. On mac import all bookmarks.xml and then File->Import->Install from exportedplugins.p2f – StefanS May 25 '16 at 13:40
  • FYI. I just tried the above steps to migrate plugins to latest Eclipse Java Version: 2021-09 (4.21.0) from previous Eclipse Java Version: 2021-03 (4.19.0) and it did not work.. It kept saying to select applications to install or something. I even selected the prior plugins folder, and nothing. – Rubens Gomes Nov 16 '21 at 20:08
14

You can export the list of the features and plugins by going to File->Export->Install.

Daniil Shevelev
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I’m bringing a really old thread to life here, but there’s a much more comfortable way to export your Eclipse plug-ins and use your setup on another machine now.

On http://profiles.yatta.de you can download the Yatta Launcher for Eclipse, which allows you to export your Eclipse & workspace setup (including your plug-in setup).

Export and installation are pretty straight forward:

  1. Download the Launcher from http://profiles.yatta.de and start it
  2. The tool will automatically discover your Eclipse installations. Find the one you want to export in the list (they are all named after your workspaces).
  3. Click the Upload & Share button (the blue one) on the right of the entry you want to export.

(You won’t actually “share” your Eclipse or workspace with anyone. You’ll just upload a setup file with your metadata that only you have access to yourself. You could share this later, but you can also just keep it as a backup).

This solution does not only allow you to reuse your eclipse plug-in setup, but also your configured Git & task repositories and many other setup-specific settings.

L. Hanke
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Along with update sites, p2 can treat existing Eclipse installations as a source for the plugins to be installed.

If you access the Eclipse folder in another machine (which has the plugins installed) via shared folder in the network , then in your new Eclipse, open Preferences->Install/Update->Available Software Sites->Add->Local-> browse to the Eclipse->p2->org.eclipse.equinox.p2.engine->profileRegistry and select the profile.

Now in the target Eclipse you can install those plugins as if you are installing from an update site.

Prakash G. R.
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P2 (the bundle provisioning system) provides functionalities for shared bundle pooling, see http://wiki.eclipse.org/Equinox/p2/Getting_Started#Bundle_pooling

Tom Seidel
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It seems that feature is on its way: http://bugs.eclipse.org/282419

Fabian Steeg
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You can simply copy the plug in folder from the other machine --(may be on a pendrive or cd )-- whatever suits you.

Then go to your ecplise, File > Import... > Plug-in Development --> Plug-ins and Fragments Click "Next"

[Import From] -- Directory. Browse your plugins folder Just Hit "Next"

From the left box, select individual or you may want to add all of it. Just hit "AddAll ->" And Just Hit "Next"

and there on just sit back let it do all the import work.

user2633822
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I don't know how to export a installed plugin,
but this answer helps for reinstalling an eclipse plugin from another eclipse installation. (How Do You Reinstall Installed Eclipse Plugins?)

Also See
Installing Eclipse (3.4+) plugins in a directory other than ECLIPSE_HOME/plugins
How To Add Perspectives In Eclipse?

Community
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Alpine
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-3

Dropping the right jars from your plugins directory to the target installation plugins directory should do the trick.

thelost
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    Okay, but there are many other plugins, i need just some of them. and each plugins has a lot jar files, so how can I be sure to copy all of them? – Nav Jul 27 '10 at 17:50
  • You might figure out by filtering by their name. But pay attention if migrating them to higher Eclipse versions (they might be incompatible). – thelost Jul 27 '10 at 17:53
  • thanks but is there another way to download separately the plugins? – Nav Jul 27 '10 at 18:32
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    You could download your favorite plugins and always install them from local source. – thelost Jul 27 '10 at 18:34
  • @thelost What if the plugin is not available to download separately? – Alpine Feb 27 '11 at 18:03
  • @Alpine grab it after installing it from wherever it is – thelost Mar 02 '11 at 21:02
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    Never, never, never... install anything directly in `plugins/` It will not be picked up by Eclipse automatically and - even more importantly - all the usual update functionality does not work for these "dropped" plug-ins. If you absolutely must add anything "by hand" do it in `dropins/`... – Tonny Madsen Jul 18 '11 at 19:08