I found it tedious to reinstall all the plugin every time upgrade the eclipse.
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This is the best option I've found so far. Dropins directories work, but they're a pain to maintain, because Eclipse wants to install new plug-ins in the Eclipse directory.
I. To transfer your list of update sites:
- Run your old Eclipse one last time
- Go to
Window->Preferences->Install/Update->Available Software Sites
- Select all update sites (click on one, then Ctrl-A), click
Export
, save the file somewhere - Run your new Eclipse, select your workspace
- Go to
Window->Preferences->Install/Update->Available Software Sites
- Click
Import
, choose the file from step 3
II. To copy across your old plug-ins:
- In the new Eclipse, select
File->Import->Install->From Existing Installation
- Select your old eclipse directory, eg
~/apps/eclipse-jee-indigo-SR1-linux-gtk-x86_64/eclipse/
- Select the plug-ins/features you want to install, click
Finish
- When it finishes, you can archive/delete your old Eclipse directory
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Working, also on eclipse based spring tool suite. This really ease my pain. – Jerry Tian Oct 22 '12 at 05:50
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Didn't work out of the box for me, there were errors complaining about unknown repositories (e.g. _No repository found containing: osgi.bundle,com.googlecode.cppcheclipse.core,0.9.6.201005161316_) at step II.3 – πάντα ῥεῖ Jan 23 '13 at 20:30
10
In the latest Eclipse, you can keep all previously-installed plugins by running Eclipse, selecting File → Import…, continuing with Install → From Existing Installation, and then selecting the older Eclipse’s path.

Rory O'Kane
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Pitty
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thanks, that worked great upgrading from juno to kepler, saved me a lot of time! – Martin Charlesworth Jun 19 '14 at 10:57
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then copy Eclipse/dropins files from the older to the newer Eclipse. – sglessard Aug 09 '19 at 20:05
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You can install plugins into an external directory like this. I don't think there is a way to keep plugins installed from inside Eclipse.

Community
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Alexey Romanov
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Import and Export of plugins can be used to keep all the installed plugins.

Srikanth Venkatesh
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