Should renaming a project in Eclipse also rename project folder on file system?

Question

Should renaming a project in Eclipse also rename project folder on file system ?

My project file system name remains the same even when I rename the file on Eclipse.

Answer 1

It appears that renaming a project will only rename the underlying filesystem directory if the project was created with the "Use Default Location" checkbox selected (meaning the project is created in the workspace directory). If you create a project and specify a custom location outside the workspace, renaming that project in Eclipse does not rename the project's host directory. In that case, you'll probably want to:

1. Rename the project in Eclipse (which will update any internal references and the .project file)
2. Remove the project from your Eclipse Workbench view (making sure that the "Delete file contents" option is NOT selected in the delete confirmation dialog).
3. Rename the project's directory in your filesystem.
4. Import the project back into your Eclipse workspace.

I was surprised to learn this (I tested it with Eclipse 3.7), but it seems to be logical to me. The idea is that projects in the workspace folder are considered to be "under Eclipse control" as opposed to projects that are located in arbitrary places on your filesystem.