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Using Eclipse

Red Hat Developer Tools 2018.4

Installing Eclipse 4.9.0 and first steps with the application

Red Hat Developer Group Documentation Team

Abstract

Information for users installing and starting to use Red Hat Developer Tools.

Chapter 1. Eclipse 4.9.0

Red Hat Developer Tools, available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7, includes Eclipse 4.9.0, which is based on the Eclipse Foundation’s 2018-09 release train. Note that the rh-eclipse collection requires the rh-maven35 collection.

Eclipse is a powerful development environment that provides tools for each phase of the development process. It integrates a variety of disparate tools into a unified environment to create a rich development experience, provides a fully configurable user interface, and features a pluggable architecture that allows for an extension in a variety of ways. For instance, the Valgrind plug-in allows programmers to perform memory profiling, that is otherwise performed on the command line through the Eclipse user interface.

Figure 1.1. Sample Eclipse Session

Sample Eclipse Session

Eclipse provides a graphical development environment alternative to traditional interaction with command line tools and it is a welcome alternative for developers who do not want to use the command line interface. The traditional, mostly command line-based Linux tools suite such as gcc or gdb and Eclipse offer two distinct approaches to programming.

For an overview on how to develop applications for Red Hat JBoss Middleware or for support for OpenShift Tools, see Red Hat Developer Studio.

Table 1.1. Eclipse Components Included in rh-eclipse

PackageDescription

rh-eclipse-eclipse-cdt

The C/C++ Development Tooling (CDT) that provides features and plug-ins for development in these two languages.

rh-eclipse-eclipse-changelog

The ChangeLog plug-in that allows you to create and maintain changelog files.

rh-eclipse-eclipse-dtp

Eclipse Data Tools Platform Project

rh-eclipse-eclipse-egit

EGit, a team provider for Eclipse that provides features and plug-ins for interaction with Git repositories.

rh-eclipse-eclipse-emf

The Eclipse Modeling Framework (EMF) that allows you to build applications based on a structured data model.

rh-eclipse-eclipse-epp-logging

The Eclipse error reporting tool.

rh-eclipse-eclipse-gcov

The GCov plug-in that integrates the GCov test coverage program with Eclipse.

rh-eclipse-eclipse-gef

The Graphical Editing Framework (GEF) that allows you to create a rich graphical editor from an existing application model.

rh-eclipse-eclipse-gprof

The Gprof plug-in that integrates the Gprof performance analysis utility with Eclipse.

rh-eclipse-eclipse-jdt

The Eclipse Java development tools (JDT) plug-in.

rh-eclipse-eclipse-jgit

JGit, a Java implementation of the Git revision control system.

rh-eclipse-eclipse-manpage

The Man Page plug-in that allows you to view manual pages in Eclipse.

rh-eclipse-eclipse-mpc

The Eclipse Marketplace Client.

rh-eclipse-eclipse-mylyn

Mylyn, a task management system for Eclipse.

rh-eclipse-eclipse-oprofile

The OProfile plug-in that integrates OProfile with Eclipse.

rh-eclipse-eclipse-pde

The Plugin Development Environment for developing Eclipse plugins.

rh-eclipse-eclipse-perf

The Perf plug-in that integrates the perf tool with Eclipse.

rh-eclipse-eclipse-ptp

A subset of the PTP project that provides support for synchronized projects.

rh-eclipse-eclipse-pydev

A full featured Python IDE for Eclipse.

rh-eclipse-eclipse-recommenders

Code Recommenders

rh-eclipse-eclipse-remote

The Remote Services plug-in that provides an extensible remote-services framework.

rh-eclipse-eclipse-rpm-editor

The Eclipse Spec File Editor that allows you to maintain RPM spec files.

rh-eclipse-eclipse-rse

The Remote System Explorer (RSE) framework that allows you to work with remote systems from Eclipse.

rh-eclipse-eclipse-systemtap

The SystemTap plug-in that integrates SystemTap with Eclipse.

rh-eclipse-eclipse-subclipse

Subclipse, a team provider for Eclipse that provides features and plug-ins for interaction with Subversion repositories.

rh-eclipse-eclipse-valgrind

The Valgrind plug-in that integrates Valgrind with Eclipse.

rh-eclipse-eclipse-webtools

The Eclipse Webtools plug-ins.

1.1. Enabling the Red Hat Developer Tools Repositories

To install Eclipse you must first enable the Red Hat Developer Tools repositories.

  • Enable the rhel-7-server-devtools-rpms repository on Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server or enable the rhel-7-workstation-devtools-rpms repository on Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation
  • Enable the rhel-server-rhscl-7-rpms repository on Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server or enable the rhel-workstation-rhscl-7-rpms repository on Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation
Note

Red Hat Developer Tools is not supported on the Client or ComputeNode variants.

To enable the Red Hat Developer Tools repositories:

  1. Run the following commands as the root user:

    # subscription-manager repos --enable rhel-7-server-devtools-rpms
    # subscription-manager repos --enable rhel-server-rhscl-7-rpms
    Note

    In the above command, depending on the variant of Red Hat Enterprise Linux that you are using, Server or Workstation, the commands will be:

    • For the Workstation variant:

      # subscription-manager repos --enable rhel-7-workstation-devtools-rpms
    • For the Server variant:

      # subscription-manager repos --enable rhel-7-server-devtools-rpms

    For developers, we recommend using Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server for access to the widest range of development tools.

    For more information on registering and attaching subscriptions, see Using and Configuring Red Hat Subscription Management.

1.1.1. Enabling the Red Hat Developer Tools debuginfo Repositories

Red Hat Developer Tools also provides the debuginfo packages for all architecture-dependent RPMs included in the repositories. These packages are useful for core file analysis and for debugging of Eclipse itself. To enable the Red Hat Developer Tools debuginfo repositories:

  1. Run the following commands as the root user:

    # subscription-manager repos --enable rhel-7-server-devtools-debug-rpms
    # subscription-manager repos --enable rhel-server-rhscl-7-debug-rpms

    For details about installing, understanding, and using the debuginfo packages, refer to Debugging a Running Application.

1.2. Installing Eclipse

The Eclipse development environment is provided as a collection of RPM packages.

  1. To install Eclipse, run the following commands as the root user:

    # yum install rh-eclipse

    For a list of available components, see Table 1.1, “Eclipse Components Included in rh-eclipse.

Note

rh-eclipse fully supports C, C++, and Java development, but it does not provide support for the Fortran programming language.

1.3. Using Eclipse

To start rh-eclipse:

  1. Click Applications > Programming > Red Hat Eclipse, or type the following at a shell prompt:

    $ scl enable rh-eclipse eclipse
  2. During its startup, Eclipse prompts you to select a workspace that is a directory in which you want to store your projects. You can either use ~/workspace/, which is the default option, or click Browse to browse your file system and select a custom directory. Additionally, you can select the Use this as the default and do not ask again check box to prevent Eclipse from displaying this dialog box the next time you run this development environment.
  3. Click OK to confirm the selection and proceed with the startup.

1.3.1. Using the Red Hat Developer Toolset Toolchain

To use rh-eclipse with support for the GNU Compiler Collection and binutils from Red Hat Developer Toolset:

  1. Ensure that devtoolset-7-toolchain is installed and run the application as described in Section 1.3, “Using Eclipse”. The rh-eclipse collection uses the Red Hat Developer Toolset toolchain by default.

For detailed instructions on how to install the devtoolset-7-toolchain package on your system, see the Red Hat Developer Toolset User Guide Section 1.5. Installing Red Hat Developer Toolset.

Important

If you are working on a project that you previously built with the Red Hat Enterprise Linux version of the GNU Compiler Collection, make sure that you discard all previous build results. To do so, open the project in Eclipse and select Project > Clean from the menu.

1.3.2. Using the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Toolchain

To use rh-eclipse with support for the toolchain distributed with Red Hat Enterprise Linux, change the configuration of the project to use absolute paths to the Red Hat Enterprise Linux system versions of gcc, g++, and as.

To configure Eclipse to explicitly use the Red Hat Enterprise Linux system versions of the tools for the current project:

  1. In the C/C++ perspective, click Project > Properties to open the project properties.
  2. In the menu on the left-hand side of the dialog box, click C/C++ Build > Settings.
  3. Click the Tool Settings tab.
  4. If you are working on a C project:

    1. Select GCC C Compiler or Cross GCC Compiler and change the value of the Command field to:

      /usr/bin/gcc
    2. Select GCC C Linker or Cross GCC Linker and change the value of the Command field to:

      /usr/bin/gcc
    3. Select GCC Assembler or Cross GCC Assembler and change the value of the Command field to:

      /usr/bin/as
  5. If you are working on a C++ project:

    1. Select GCC C Compiler* or *Cross G Compiler and change the value of the Command field to:

      /usr/bin/g++
    2. Select GCC C Compiler or Cross GCC Compiler and change the value of the Command field to:

      /usr/bin/gcc
    3. Select GCC C Linker* or *Cross G Linker and change the value of the Command field to:

      /usr/bin/g++
    4. Select GCC Assembler or Cross GCC Assembler and change the value of the Command field to:

      /usr/bin/as
  6. Click OK to save the configuration changes.

1.4. Additional Resources

A detailed description of Eclipse and all its features is beyond the scope of this document. For more information, see the following resources.

Installed Documentation

  • Eclipse includes a built-in Help system that provides extensive documentation for each integrated feature and tool. This greatly decreases the initial time investment required for new developers to become fluent in its use. The use of this Help section is detailed in the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Developer Guide linked below.

See Also

  • Chapter 2, Changes Since Developer Tools 2018.3 provides a list of selected features and improvements over the Eclipse development environment included in the previous release of Developer Tools.
  • The Red Hat Developer Toolset chapter in the User Guide provides an overview of Red Hat Developer Toolset and more information on how to install it on your system.
  • The GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) chapter in the User Guide provides information on how to compile programs written in C, C++, and Fortran on the command line.

Chapter 2. Changes Since Developer Tools 2018.3

Red Hat Developer Tools is distributed with Eclipse 4.9.0 and other plug-ins from the 2018-09 release train which provide a number of bug fixes and feature enhancements over that distributed in Red Hat Developer Tools 2018.3. The following is an abridged list of new features and compatibility changes in this release. For details on how to use these new features, see the built-in Eclipse documentation.

Dependencies

The rh-eclipse collection depends on the rh-maven35 collection. RHEL 7.5 is recommended for the best possible experience.

Significant Package Updates

  • eclipse 4.8.0 → 4.9.0: Eclipse Platform JDT/PDE plug-ins were updated to 4.9.0. The highlights include:

    • User experience and user interface enhancements, including improved support for dark theme and a new minimap feature for code editors.
    • Updated versions of both Apache Ant and JUnit5.
    • Code formatter improvements.

    For details, see the upstream release notes at https://www.eclipse.org/eclipse/news/4.9/.

  • eclipse-cdt 9.5.2 → 9.5.3: C/C++ Development Tools was updated to 9.5.3. The highlights include:

    • Important fixes to code indexing features.
    • Improved support for launching containerized projects with the launchbar.
  • eclipse-linuxtools 7.0.0 → 7.1.0: Linuxtools was updated to 7.1.0, including various bug fixes for Docker tooling and profile tooling.
  • eclipse-m2e-core 1.9.0 → 1.9.1: Eclipse Maven integration was updated to 1.9.1, including support for Java 11.

    For details, see the upstream release notes at https://projects.eclipse.org/projects/technology.m2e/releases/1.9.1/bugs.

  • eclipse-webtools 3.10.4 → 3.11.0: The Webtools plug-ins were updated 3.11.0, including support for Java 11.

    For details, see the upstream release notes at https://projects.eclipse.org/projects/webtools/releases/3.11/bugs.

  • eclipse-pydev 6.3.3 → 6.5.0: The Pydev plug-in was updated to 6.5.0, including debugging and code formatting improvements.

    For details, see the upstream release notes: http://www.pydev.org/history_pydev.html.

  • eclipse-egit/eclipse-jgit 5.0.1 → 5.1.1: The Git integration plug-ins were updated to 5.1.1, including usability and performance improvements.

    For details, see the upstream release notes at https://projects.eclipse.org/projects/technology.jgit/releases/5.1.0 and https://projects.eclipse.org/projects/technology.egit/releases/5.1.0.

Chapter 3. Known Issues in Eclipse 4.9.0

This section details the Known Issues in Eclipse 4.9.0.

3.1. Debuginfo Conflicts

Cause: When a user attempts to install a debuginfo package for this collection, for example: rh-eclipse-eclipse-cdt-debuginfo, the contents may conflict with the same packages from the earlier collections.

Consequence: The installation of the rh-eclipse debuginfo package may fail if the same debuginfo package from the rh-eclipse48 collection is installed.

Workaround: To use debuginfo for the rh-eclipse collection, debuginfo packages from the rh-eclipse48 collection should first be uninstalled using the command yum remove rh-eclipse48*debuginfo.

Result: The installation of the debuginfo packages from the rh-eclipse collection is successful.

3.2. Conflict between the RHSCL rh-maven33-scldevel and rh-maven35-scldevel packages

There is a conflict between the RHSCL rh-maven33-scldevel and rh-maven35-scldevel packages. This affects the rh-eclipse-scldevel package (note that this package is not installed by default).

The rh-eclipse-scldevel and rh-eclipse46-scldevel packages cannot be present simultaneously.

3.3. PyDev users may experience issues with the 'pip' integration

Modules that are pre-installed by the Python SCL cannot be uninstalled; attempts to do so will result in permission denied errors.

3.4. Incompatibilities between Eclipse Subclipse and base RHEL Subversion

Working copies of Subversion repositories created with Eclipse Subclipse are incompatible with the base RHEL version of Subversion. Using the svn command on such working copies may result in the following error:

$ svn up
svn: E155021: This client is too old to work with the working copy

Workaround: Use the pure-Java implementation of Subversion used by Eclipse Subclipse on the command line:

# yum install rh-eclipse-svnkit-cli # Command line support for SVNKit

Now, use the jsvn command anywhere you would normally use the svn command:

$ jsvn up
Updating '.':
At revision 16476.

3.5. Tycho Conflicts

Cause: The rh-eclipse-tycho package conflicts with the same package from the earlier collections, for example: rh-eclipse48-tycho.

Consequence: The installation of rh-eclipse-tycho package may fail when the rh-eclipse48-tycho package is already installed.

Workaround: Note that only users that want to build or re-build Eclipse or its plug-ins need tycho. If needed, uninstall the rh-eclipse48-tycho package using the yum remove rh-eclipse48-tycho command before attempting to install the rh-eclipse-tycho package.

Result: The installation of the rh-eclipse-tycho package is successful.

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