Installing Eclipse

Eclipse requires the Java SDK, so be sure you have Java installed before attempting to install it.

Ubuntu 16.04

Eclipse should exist in the Universe repostitory as eclipse, though be aware that the repo versions tend to lag the latest version significantly. For example, the most recent version as of October 2016 is 4.6, while the repo version available in Ubuntu 16.04 is 3.8.1-8, originally released four years prior. For this reason, you may wish to circumvent apt-get and install Eclipse manually; there are many guides online for doing this.

Apt-get:

$ sudo apt-get install eclipse

• /etc/eclipse.ini
• /usr/bin/eclipse
• /usr/lib/eclipse/
• /usr/share/eclipse/

Better:

Download

Download the appropriate installer for your system from the Eclipse website. Untar and run it. Eclipse is modular and can be optimized for many different languages and platforms, so the installer will ask what specific optimization you'd like to start with. For us, the choice is between "Java" and "Javascript/Web". I picked Java (Joel), but you can pick whatever you like with the understanding that additional modules for different languages can be installed separately. That is, this choice is merely a convenience, you're not locking yourself into anything when you make it.

For the sake of organization, you may wish to move the eclipse/ installation directory somewhere outside of your home or Downloads folder. I moved it to /opt/, but that's also up to you. Remember to chown -R root:root the folder if you move it outside of your home directory.

Create Executable

The Eclipse executable is not automatically added to your PATH variable. For convenience, I created the file /usr/bin/eclipse with the content

#!/bin/sh    
export ECLIPSE_HOME="/opt/eclipse/java-neon/eclipse"
$ECLIPSE_HOME/eclipse $*

ECLIPSE_HOME points to wherever the installation directory is. If you didn't move yours like mine, then adjust as appropriate. The point is to get to the eclipse executable.

Create Menu Item

This will vary by OS version and desktop flavor. Ask the internet

Configuration

When you first open Eclipse, you'll be asked to choose a workspace folder. The default is /home/~/workspace/. I took the default, but this is totally up to you.

The first Eclipse window presented should offer options for "Overview" and "Tutorials." If you've never used Eclipse, these are recommended.

-- Main.JoelG - 2016-09-28

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