[p2-dev] P2 based installer that installs into an alternate location

[Thomas Hallgren <thomas@xxxxxxx>]

Hi,
I'm trying to create a p2 based installer that installs into a location 
that is different from its own agent location (I want to be able to run 
it from within an Eclipse IDE). I've done some experimenting with 
starting and stopping services but it just doesn't seem doable. Among 
other things I hit this piece of code in the SurrogateProfileHandler:

   private synchronized SimpleProfileRegistry getProfileRegistry() {
       if (profileRegistry == null) {
           String installArea = 
EngineActivator.getContext().getProperty(OSGI_INSTALL_AREA);
           try {
               URL registryURL = new URL(installArea + P2_ENGINE_DIR + 
SimpleProfileRegistry.DEFAULT_STORAGE_DIR);
               File sharedRegistryDirectory = new 
File(registryURL.getPath());
               profileRegistry = new 
SimpleProfileRegistry(sharedRegistryDirectory, null, false);
           } catch (MalformedURLException e) {
               //this is not possible because we know the above URL is 
valid
           }
       }
       return profileRegistry;
   }

Why does it base the 'installArea' on the OSGI_INSTALL_AREA here? Why 
isn't the 'eclipse.p2.data.area' used?

- thomas