We have found it useful to install plug-ins separately from where Eclipse is installed, so you do not lose the plug-ins when you inevitably delete your Eclipse installation to start again, or install a new version. This works better than relying on Eclipse's self-upgrade working, and is simple when you know how. Here's how.

The idea for installing plug-ins is to keep each plug-in in its own directory tree, separate from the Eclipse installation, and other plug-ins. In this example, we are using Linux and want to install plug-ins in /usr/local/eclipse-plugins while Eclipse itself is installed in the /usr/local/eclipse directory.

The following instructions are for Eclipse 3.2.

1. In Eclipse, select Help > Software Updates > Find and Install….
2. On the Feature Updates wizard page, select Search for new features to install and click Next.
3. On the Update sites to visit wizard page, click the New Remote Site… button.
4. On the New Update Site dialogue box, enter the plug-in name and update site URL from this page, above, and click OK.
5. On the Update sites to visit wizard page, select only the update site you just created, and click Finish.
6. On the Search results wizard page, select the required features from the list, and click Next.
7. On the Feature licence wizard page, select I accept the terms in the licence agreement, and click Next.
8. On the Installation wizard page, select all of the features in the list and click Change Location....
9. Create and select a new sub-folder of /usr/local/eclipse-sites/ for the plug-in you are installing.
10. On the wizard, click Finish to start downloading.
11. On the Feature verification wizard page, click Install All to install the plug-in.

The crucial step is step 8, where you choose a different plug-in installation location to the default, which is inside the Eclipse installation.

Peter Hilton is a senior software developer at Lunatech Research.

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