Chapter 9. Upgrading Eclipse, eCosPro CDT plug-in and Eclipse Workspaces

Table of Contents

9.1. Upgrading Eclipse
9.2. Upgrading the eCosPro CDT plug-in
9.3. Upgrading the Eclipse Workspace

There are three points to consider before you upgrade to a newer version of Eclipse:

Upgrading the Eclipse Plugins.
This is the most important point to consider as Eclipse provides the framework for the IDE but the plug-ins provide the functionality of the IDE. You must ensure the plug-ins you use are compatible with the newer version of Eclipse, and if not whether newer versions of the plug-ins are available which are compaible with the newer version of Eclipse. If the plugins you use are are incompatible or do not have newer versions available which are incompatible you will need to either accept the loss of functionality which the upgrade make bring or forgo the upgrade until compatible versions become available.
Upgrading the Eclipse installation.
Generally speaking, an upgrade of Eclipse consititutes a completely new installation of Eclipse rather than upgrades of individual components to an existing installation. Older installations of Eclipse may be run side-by-side with newer installations, although common workspaces may not be shared.
Upgrading the Eclipse workspace.
Before performing any Eclipse upgrade, you must take a backup of your workspaces, or create a copy of the workspace for the new version of Eclipse. Once a workspace has been upgraded by a newer version of Eclipse, you will never be able to use it again with an older version of Ecplise.

9.1. Upgrading Eclipse

Upgrading Eclipse is generally a fairly simple task involving a new installation of Eclipse rather than the replacement or upgrade of an existing installation. Please refer to the installation instructions for the new Eclipse distribution you have been provided.

eCosCentric customers are provided with an Eclipse installer which allows the developer to create a new Eclipse installation, including the eCosPro CDT plug-in, for developing eCosPro applications, or installs the eCosPro CDT plug-in into an existing Eclipse installation provided by a third- party or downloaded and installed from the Eclipse website. Please refer to the installation instructions provided with your eCosPro distribution to install either a new Eclipse version, including the eCosPro CDT plug-in. These instructions include information on how to install the eCosPro CDT plug-in into third-party Eclipse installations.

9.2. Upgrading the eCosPro CDT plug-in

You may upgraded the eCosPro CDT plug-in within an Eclipse installation using the installer provided to you by eCosCentric. Alternatively, you can update online by following the instructions at: http://www.ecoscentric.com/eclipse/.

9.3. Upgrading the Eclipse Workspace

	Important
Before upgrading to a newer release of Eclipse from an older release it is extremely important to take a backup of the entire workspace directory. Once a workspace has been upgraded, it is no longer usable by older versions of Eclipse. Do not copy or move the workspace directory because it may contain metadata with absolute pathnames, making them invalid if the workspace is copied or moved elsewhere.

Important

Before upgrading to a newer release of Eclipse from an older release it is extremely important to take a backup of the entire workspace directory. Once a workspace has been upgraded, it is no longer usable by older versions of Eclipse.
Do not copy or move the workspace directory because it may contain metadata with absolute pathnames, making them invalid if the workspace is copied or moved elsewhere.

If you previously started the older version of Eclipse using the -data argument to specify the name and location of the workspace directory, to upgrade the workspace you only need to start the newer Eclipse with the same -data argument.

If you did not provide the -data argument to Eclipse, the workspace chooser dialog allows you to choose the location of your workspace. Select Browse and navigate to the location of the workspace then select OK. Check the Use this as the default and do not ask again box for Eclipse to remember your decision. Finally select OK to accept the workspace. Eclipse will now upgrade your workspace.

	Warning
	Do not store your workspace inside the Eclipse install directory as it will make difficult to upgrade to a newer version of Eclipse.


Chapter 8. Hints and Troubleshooting