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I've manually installed the latest Eclipse on our debian server and wanted to configure it so all users share the same configuration. It turned out less obvious than I thought: I don't seem to be able to install packages for all users. If I run it myself, all configuration data is saved under my own home directory. If I run Eclipse using sudo, everything is saved under the root directory but is not accessible for other users when they run Eclipse.

I've been browsing the manual of Eclipse and some forums, but apart from a "yes, you can" I couldn't find any information on how that should be done. The biggest problem is installing plugins for all users to be found. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Eclipse : 3.6.1 classic, installed using this procedure.

Server uname: GNU/Linux *** 2.6.26-2-amd64

Server is accessed using Putty, and Gnome desktop through realVNC. Just mentioning it if that is of any importance. Our sysadmin is on "prolonged leave" (working in Spain and never replaced), so I'm stuck without help here.

EDIT:

I've found a list of variables that could be set in the launcher.ini or config.ini regarding configuration : osgi.configuration.area, osgi.configuration.area.default, osgi.sharedConfiguration.area, osgi.configuration.cascaded, ... But I can't figure out exaclty how to set these correctly.

-- I asked this question also on Serverfault, but I am far from certain where this belongs. Feel free to merge both questions in the appropriate place. --

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Joris Meys
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1 Answers1

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For plugins, you could add in eclipse.ini (for all Eclispe you install) a common path for "shared dropins directory".
All plugins copied in that directory will be detected when Eclipse is launched.

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VonC
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  • @VonC Thx for the answer. But this won't get other configuration items (list of repositories etc.) in a shared Eclipse, would it? I've been looking at osgi.configuration.area etc., but I can't make much sense from the documentation. – Joris Meys Jan 13 '11 at 11:58
  • @Joris: correct, this only address the plugins issue. For the rest, I usually prepare some settings that I integrate in a custom Eclipse installation zip file. – VonC Jan 13 '11 at 12:25
  • @VonC : thing is, I have a shared installation (one installation used by all), and I need that one installation to contain a few settings (StatET plugin, settings to run R on the server etc.) for all users, and all the rest will go to their own configuration area. How I have to do that with settings integrated in a custom Eclipse installation zip file is unknown to me. Could you elaborate? – Joris Meys Jan 13 '11 at 12:33
  • @Joris: actually, I have a separate zip for the workspace metadata. It is there (in the workspace) I set some common settings for the GUI and for some plugins (Findbugs, PMD, checkstyle). I have never touched the `config.ini` or `configuration.area` settings. – VonC Jan 13 '11 at 12:39
  • @VonC : and that's for a multi-user install on a remote server? I'm new to this, but I fail to see how I'd get this done. Should I then just zip the complete configuration it makes in my own home directory and paste it somewhere else (where would be a mistery to me...)? Sorry to bother you with this, but I'm struggling with it for 2 days now. It gets me nuts. – Joris Meys Jan 13 '11 at 12:51
  • @Joris: no, my problem was to make a custom setup that each user would install on their own machine, not a common install on a server. The shared dropins directory I mention in my answer is the only part of my setup that could be useful in a multi-user install on a remote server. I have never tested the other aspects (workspace, config, settings, ...) in a shared installation (I am not sure it could work, actually). I have always seen Eclipse as something you unzip on your workstation. – VonC Jan 13 '11 at 13:02
  • @VonC : we use it with StatET as an editor for R. As we sometimes work with datasets that exceeds the possibilities of our workstations, we need one on the remote server too. Thx for the input, I'll continue trying some things out. – Joris Meys Jan 13 '11 at 13:12