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How does Eclipse/eGit connect workspace to git repo and its project metadata/source files? [message #1744315]

Sat, 24 September 2016 22:55

Les Gasser

Messages: 3
Registered: September 2016

Junior Member

I've been working with Eclipse/eGit and having great success on a number of projects. But there is one piece of information I just can't seem to grasp, hence this query.

If I make an "ordinary" Eclipse project, the default (which I sometimes use) is to place the project source trees into the current workspace directory on the filesystem. Open the workspace and you get access to of the projects residing in the workspace, and it's easy to see how & why that occurs - their code and metadata is right there in the workspace directory structure itself.

But suppose I have an eclipse workspace that contains only git-managed projects with their own local git repos. In that case, as you know, the project source trees will not appear in the eclipse workspace's file structure. Instead, the source trees (along with all project metadata like .project, .classpath, .settings, pom.xml) are stored elsewhere in the filesystem wherever the git repos are, in directories that are "sistered" to their respective .git directories (see attached pic of such a repo & sistered project folder in my main Git directory).

In this kind of git-managed case, the eclipse workspace itself will only contain three directories (see attached pic of such an eclipse workspace):

.metadata
.recommenders
RemoteSystemsTempFiles

I have examined all these, and as far as I can see, there are no project-specific subdirectories or information in the workspace at all. None of these 3 directories or their subfolders or files seem to contain any information about the location or structure of the projects themselves, git repos, metadata, etc.

So when you load this kind of workspace on startup, how does eclipse find information on the projects in the workspace? How does eclipse link the workspace (directory) itself to the repos and the sistered file trees with the actual project metadata, source trees, pom, and so on? How is the connection made?

It must be something obvious (so I think) but I don't find it.

Thanks for any help,

- Les

Attachment: git-repo-structure-with-project-folders.png
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Attachment: eclipse-git-managed-workspace-structure.png
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Re: How does Eclipse/eGit connect workspace to git repo and its project metadata/source files? [message #1744381 is a reply to message #1744315]

Mon, 26 September 2016 12:37

Matthias Sohn

Messages: 1268
Registered: July 2009

Senior Member

metadata for Eclipse projects is stored in the workspace folder under
<workspace folder>/.metadata/.plugins/org.eclipse.core.resources/.projects/

and the mapping from Eclipse project to the corresponding git repository is stored in
<workspace folder>/.metadata/.plugins/org.eclipse.core.resources/.projects/<project name>/org.eclipse.egit.core/GitProjectData.properties

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