Eclipse reload Launch configuration files

I am editing the launch configuration in the folder WORKSPACE/.metadata/开发者_JAVA技巧.plugins/org.eclipse.debug.core/.launches/. Is there any way to force the eclipse reload the changes in these files? I need this because I need fix the broken configurations from previous version of eclipse. I wrote a plugin which can do this, but I need to restart eclipse after that. Does anyone know how to this without restarting eclipse? Thanks

I would rather export those "launches configurations" within my project.
(See "How do I save Eclipse launch profiles across workspaces?": choose a shared file location inside your workspace from the "Common" tab of the launch configurations.)

I usually keep them in <project>/.settings.

Then, if you do modification from an external editor, you can simply refresh your project, and it should pick up the evolutions in said configuration files.
No restart needed:
You don't need to read again your workspace, which contains metadata about your project.
You only need to refresh your project, which contains data, ... and now also those configuration files.