Eclipse IDE Pocket Guide

Getting Upgrades

Eclipse includes an automatic update facility that can handle point releases (i.e., bug-fix versions) without any work on your part. For example, Eclipse would install an upgrade from 3.1.0 to 3.1.1 automatically. However, for anything more substantial, the best practice is to do a manual clean install.

Tip

A clean install is especially important if you want to use beta versions of Eclipse (called Stable or Milestone builds on the download page). Milestone builds are sometimes buggy, so you may need to temporarily go back and run your previous version.

For example, let's say you have been running Version 3.1 for a while and now Version 3.2 has come out. You want to upgrade right away because each new release contains a number of important bug fixes and useful new features. Also, if you have a problem with an older release and report it to the developers, they will simply ask you to upgrade (see "Reporting Bugs" in Part IX). So, you should upgrade, but what's the best way to do it?

First, rename your eclipse directory to something else, like eclipse3.1. Then download the new SDK package and install it normally, as if you had never installed Eclipse before. This is called a clean install because you are not attempting to mix new and old code together. Note that your workspace doesn't need to change at all, but you should back it up before running the new version just in case. Now do you see why I recommended you don't keep your workspace in the install directory?

Tip

Any additional plug-ins you have installed for Eclipse will need to be reinstalled at this point unless you keep them in an extension location separate from the Eclipse SDK.