Sometimes you want to avoid clutter in your Eclipse Workspace Launcher and might want to remove obsolete workspaces.

Clean up the value for RECENT_WORKSPACES key, located in the org.eclipse.ui.ide.prefs file.

$ECLIPSE_HOME/configuration/.settings/org.eclipse.ui.ide.prefs

Restart eclipse and it should be gone.

Usually with Android development in Eclipse, you will often be working with XML Files and trying to mess with them. Now while testing your app you will find a file.out.xml that gets created that completely messes up the Android build and shows errors. One way to avoid this is to use the following Settings in Eclipse.

Window -> Preferences -> Run/Debug -> Launching -> Launch Operation -> Always launch the previously launched application

If you want to start eclipse with a specific version of Java, use the -vm option.

C:\eclipse\eclipse.exe -vm C:\jdk1.6.0_26\bin\javaw.exe

Sometimes you might want to create some JavaDoc for some APIs (as a one-off) say for a customer (Doc Team etc.). Simply use the javadoc command line option. Use the -d option to specify the destination for generated HTML content.

~/java/jdk1.6.0_20/bin/javadoc ./src/java/com/domain/api/MyService.java -d ~/tmp/javadoc

Alternatively, from within Eclipse – you can start the JavaDoc wizard and select the class you want generate the JavaDoc for.

File => Export => Java => JavaDoc => Select The Class, Desitination and hit Finish

It’s easy to forget the options required to start a Java process with Remote Debug turned on at some port. So, to attach your Eclipse (or other IDE) debugger to a running Java process you need to start that process with the following Java options.

-Xdebug -Xrunjdwp:transport=dt_socket,server=y,suspend=n,address=5096

Start your Java process with these parameters. Then you can use your IDE to connect to this process.

For Eclipse,

• In Eclipse, navigate to Run | Debug Configurations…
• Create a new Remote Java Application (in the left column)
• Fill in the required values and in the port enter 5096 and click Debug to attach to the process

Sometimes Eclipse opens *.sh (etc.) files in the default editor emacs, vi etc. or probably tries to execute them. To open them in the Default Eclipse Text Editor you need to set it up in the Eclipse preferences.

Window->Preferences->General->Editors->File Association
In the File types: section Add *.sh
In the Associated editor section Add Text Editor