How to copy plugins between two eclipses

I have two eclipse directories, both are Galileo. One has plugin A installed, the another has plugin B. Now I want to have just one eclipse, is it save to just copy the plugins directory fr开发者_C百科om one of the eclipses to the other?

I'm not sure when it was introduced, but in Eclipse 3.7 you can install plug-ins from another Eclipse installation via the GUI: File->Import->Install->From Existing Installation. You can also transfer the list of update sites. See https://stackoverflow.com/a/10494974/14379

Yes, but I would recommend using a "shared dropins directory" to avoid the copy altogether.

Modify tour eclipse.ini for both installation:

-Dorg.eclipse.equinox.p2.reconciler.dropins.directory=/<myPath>/mySharedDropins

Sadly, when you originally install a plugin, you cannot install it directly in the shared dropins, so at least one copy is still necessary there.

Yes, it is safe. This is one way (not the preferred one) to install new plugins.

You can also install one plugin from another using p2. You add the other installed Eclipse as an update site, and you can select the installed plug-in (after unchecking the categorization).

For update site you the following path: /path/to/eclipse/p2/org.eclipse.equinox.p2.engine/profileRegistry/SDKProfile.profile

An alternative to modifying the .ini file is using Link Files in your Dropins folders. The link files are simply text files with the extension .link. They contain a single (I think, never tried with multiple) line of text of the form:

path=<full path to an external folder>

The folder you reference should have two sub-folders: plugins and features, where you install your plugins. You can install multiple plugins in a single location. You can drop multiple link files, which means, you can maintain sets of plugins and drop them into different Eclipse installations (which is more flexible than using a shared dropins).

More information:

• More details on link files (though seriously prehistoric article).
• Read about links files in P2 (not very informative).