[eclipse-dev] Users of Import-Package: org.eclipse.core.runtime (2nd edi

[Thomas Watson <tjwatson@xxxxxxxxxx>]

If you have a plug-in which uses the
OSGi manifest header Import-Package to access the package org.eclipse.core.runtime
(i.e. Import-Package: org.eclipse.core.runtime) then read on.  Otherwise
you can disregard this note.  Note that most plug-ins in Eclipse use
Require-Bundle instead of Import-Package.  Require-Bundle users can
disregard this note. 

During the 3.2 development cycle the runtime team has been hard at work
splitting up the org.eclipse.core.runtime plug-in into separate plug-ins.
 This has resulted in the org.eclipse.core.runtime package being split
across three plug-ins (org.eclipse.equinox.common, org.eclipse.equinox.registry
and org.eclipse.core.runtime).  As a result if you have a plug-in
which simply uses the header "Import-Package: org.eclipse.core.runtime"
then you may get wired to any one of the three exporters.  

To remedy this the runtime team updated the exporters of the split package
with the mandatory directive "bundle-symbolic-name".  See
https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=132200 for more information.
 Unfortunately this forces importers to be tightly coupled to a specific
bundle which exports the org.eclipse.core.runtime package.  To allow
for loose coupling when using Import-Package we have updated the mandatory
directives again for the split package org.eclipse.core.runtime.  See
https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=134083 for more information

Here are the different Import-Package
statements you can use to access the different parts of the split package:

## to import only the content from the
org.eclipse.equinox.common bundle
Import-Package: org.eclipse.core.runtime; common="split"

## to import only the content from the
org.eclipse.equinox.registry bundle
Import-Package: org.eclipse.core.runtime;
registry="split

## to import the complete package from
the org.eclipse.core.runtime bundle
Import-Package: org.eclipse.core.runtime

Tom