[news.eclipse.tools] Re: How to upgrade

[malcom@xxxxxxxxxxx (Marcus Malcom)]

Hao Wu wrote:

> M4 has just came out. I'd like to ask a question that should have been
> asked long before. What's the best way to upgrade Eclipse?

> What I currently do is to use "external" workspace, outside of <eclipse
> install dir>, say C:\eclipse. And when I want to install new release,
> remove the old (C:\eclipse) and unzip the new (into C:\eclipse). But this
> still requires installation of the plugins.

> Is there a better way?

I do not have a better answer than to copy the plugins/features over from
the old Eclipse install directory. A general practice that I use is to
rename the Eclipse install directory right after unzipping. So for 2.1 M4: 

  C:\eclipse 

would be 

  C:\eclipse-2.1-m4

After the install of the new version i copy over my workspace, if the
workspace is under the eclipse install directory (which I would
recommend). if the workspace is located some place else ... then there
could be issues using the new version of Eclipse with the workspace (and
this way allows for an easy back and forth)

But the plug-ins must still be copied over as well. It would be nice if
all user installed plug-ins would go in a separate directory other than
plugins. for instance:

  C:\eclipse\plugins\third-pary

same for features as well. that way it would be extremely easy to perform
the upgrade (that's assuming the third-party plug-ins work with the new
version of Eclipse). maybe a new feature request needs to be made here.
thoughts anyone?

hope this helps,

marcus