[news.eclipse.newcomer] Plug-in Dependencies classpath container is flak

[Matt McCutchen <hashproduct+eclipse@xxxxxxxxx>]

I am using Eclipse 3.3 on Linux.  I have a workspace that contains the
Eclipse SDK and some other projects checked out from the Eclipse CVS
repositories.  I use it frequently to test out the HEAD of Eclipse and
to reproduce and fix bugs.

For as long as I can remember, the Plug-in Dependencies classpath
container has been somewhat flaky.  It occasionally loses or fails to
add required plugins that are declared in MANIFEST.MF.  For example,
when I updated the projects from CVS today, org.eclipse.debug.ui's
Plug-in Dependencies randomly lost org.eclipse.debug.core, resulting in
a lot of errors about classes not being found.  Removing and re-adding
the classpath container did not fix the problem.  Neither did closing
and reopening org.eclipse.debug.core.  Closing, reopening, and
rebuilding all the projects did.  For another example, recently I
checked out two projects from CVS at once, and one of them depended on
the other.  The Plug-in Dependencies failed to add this dependency, and
errors resulted.

The problem is intermittent, and I have not found a way to reproduce it
reliably.  What steps should I take to further investigate the problem?
I am hoping to solve it for good since it is a major annoyance in my
work on Eclipse.

Matt