Eclipse Launch Configs

IntelliJ IDEA plugin that uses Eclipse launch configurations (.launch files) as live run configurations, so a team can keep sharing them between Eclipse and IntelliJ IDEA.

• JUnit (org.eclipse.jdt.junit.launchconfig) and Java Application (org.eclipse.jdt.launching.localJavaApplication) launch files inside the project folders appear as Eclipse Launch run configurations, grouped by Eclipse project. Run, debug, coverage and the usual IDEA editors work as for normal JUnit/Application configurations.
• Changes made in IDEA are written back to the .launch file. Only the changed attribute is replaced; unknown attributes, attribute order, indentation, line separators and entity spelling stay byte for byte as Eclipse wrote them. New attributes are inserted where Eclipse would put them (sorted by key).
• Changes to the file (VCS update, Eclipse, the editor) are loaded immediately. Renaming or deleting the file renames or removes the configuration; renaming the configuration renames the file.
• New configurations of the Eclipse Launch type are only stored in IDEA; a notification offers to write a .launch file into the Eclipse project of their module.
• .launch files have their own icon and can be run or debugged from their context menu. Run → Reload Eclipse Launch Files reads all files again; this also happens automatically when a Gradle sync changes the modules.
• Launch files in the Eclipse workspace metadata (.metadata/.plugins/org.eclipse.debug.core/.launches) are private to one Eclipse installation and are ignored.

Mapping

Eclipse	IntelliJ IDEA
Project (PROJECT_ATTR)	Module whose content root is the folder of that Eclipse project (.project), even if the file lies in another project; for Gradle builds the source set module ….test; Applications use ….main only with Exclude test code, since Eclipse otherwise puts test code and test dependencies on their class path. A module chosen in IDEA stays local and is not written to the file.
JUnit class / method	Test kind Class / Method
JUnit container: project, source folder, package	All in package (whole module), Directory, Package (module scope)
VM / program arguments, environment (append/replace)	same, Eclipse variables are kept in the text and resolved at launch
Working directory	resolved path; written back as ${workspace_loc:Project/…}
JRE (JRE_CONTAINER)	Alternative JRE: SDK with the same name, else same Java version
TEST_KIND, classpath, source lookup, favorites, …	not used by IDEA, kept unchanged in the file

Variables resolved at launch: ${workspace_loc}, ${workspace_loc:/Project/path}, ${project_loc}, ${project_name}, ${resource_loc:…}, ${env_var:X}, ${system_property:X} and the user defined string substitution variables of the Eclipse workspace (.metadata/.plugins/org.eclipse.core.runtime/.settings/org.eclipse.core.variables.prefs). Unknown variables are passed through unchanged.

Output folders: Eclipse/Buildship compile into bin/main, bin/test, … Configurations often pass these folders in system properties (plugin class paths). With Use IDEA output folders (Eclipse section of the editor, on by default) <project>/bin/<source set> is replaced at launch by the output folder of the IDEA module that compiles those sources (a Gradle build may compile the sources of other projects). The file keeps bin/main. The before-launch step Build modules of Eclipse output folders builds these modules incrementally, since they are usually not dependencies of the configuration. Each redirect is logged; folders without an IDEA module trigger a warning.

Related: builds that compile source folders of other projects (srcDirs '../Other/src') work best with the Gradle Sync Queue plugin (1.1+), which turns those folders into module dependencies like Eclipse does.

Build

gradle check buildPlugin
gradle runIdeWithWorkspace   # sandbox IDE with the Multi-Project Workspace plugin

WorkspaceRoundTripTest checks every .launch file of a local Eclipse workspace (~/Documents/workspace, -Declipse.workspace=… or ECLIPSE_WORKSPACE); it is skipped when the folder does not exist.

License

Apache License 2.0, © i-net software