Getting a lightweight installation of Java Eclipse

Question

Having dealt with yet another stupid eclipse problem, I want to try to get the lightest, most minimal Eclipse installation as possible.

To be clear, I use eclipse for tw

Answer 1

Get as minimal an installation as you can, and then remove whatever is left that you don't want.

Longer answer:

I played around a bit. Here's how I experimented:

1. Extract a clean eclipse*.zip to two different directories; call it eclipse and eclipse-bak. We'll only modify eclipse.
2. Before starting it the first time, remove some of the features from the features folder. I got rid of org.eclipse.cvs, org.eclipse.epp.\*, ...mylyn\*, ...wst\*.
3. Start up Eclipse to a workspace. Create in that workspace a Java project, debugging configuration, etc. Stuff that you would want to do and that will complain if we remove the wrong thing. Open up the Error Log view.
4. Close Eclipse. Remove something (or a group of things) from the plugins folder.
5. Open Eclipse. Check the error log to see if something you care about couldn't load. If it did, add those things back from eclipse-bak/plugins. If not, close Eclipse and return to step 4 for a new set of plugins.

Using this I got my configuration to still be able to edit and debug Java files, but including only these plugins:

com.ibm.icu*
org.apache.*
org.eclipse.compare*
org.eclipse.core*
org.eclipse.debug*
org.eclipse.draw2d*
org.eclipse.ecf*
org.eclipse.epp.package.java*
org.eclipse.equinox*
org.eclipse.help*
org.eclipse.jdt*
org.eclipse.jface*
org.eclipse.ltk*
org.eclipse.osgi*
org.eclipse.platform*
org.eclipse.rcp*
org.eclipse.search*
org.eclipse.team.core
org.eclipse.team.ui
org.eclipse.text
org.eclipse.ui*
org.eclipse.update*
org.hamcrest*
org.sat4j*

Most of that is core stuff, but you might be able to trim it down further. Notably gone are Mylyn, the usage collector, EMF, CVS, WST, even JUnit (though I think you should keep JUnit).

Answer 2

You can download the empty Eclipse platform and then manually install the JDT tools.

1. Go to the The Eclipse Project Downloads page.
2. Choose the bundle you want, probably Latest Release.
3. On the download page of the chosen bundle:
   1. Download Platform Runtime Binary
   2. Download JDT Runtime Binary
4. Extract the Platform Runtime Binary archive file and run it (for example, by double clicking on eclipse.exe).
5. Install the JDT binary:
   1. Click Help → Install New Software → Add... → Archive.
   2. Choose the JDT zip file you downloaded.
   3. Uncheck Group Items by category.
   4. Select the Eclipse Java Development Tools.
   5. Click next to install and restart Eclipse when prompted.

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JDT from the Eclipse update site

You can also install JDT from the Eclipse update site, instead of downloading the binary.

To do this, do this following:

1. Skip downloading the JDT Runtime Binary, only download, extract and run the Platform Runtime Binary.
2. Go to the Install New Software, but instead of Archive chose the Eclipse download site.
3. Search and install Eclipse Java Development Tools.

Answer 3

You can use a thirdparty distribution builder like Yoxos and download just what you want.