Re: [p2-dev] Installing plug-ins from a local folder

[John Arthorne <John_Arthorne@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Ravi, if you haven't already done so,
I suggest entering bug reports for any problems you are seeing. Otherwise
this useful feedback is just going to get lost in the mailing list traffic.

Ravi Sankar V <v.r.sankar@xxxxxxxxx>
Sent by: p2-dev-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxx

03/03/2009 11:51 AM

Please respond to
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Subject	Re: [p2-dev] Installing plug-ins from a local folder

Thanks Paul. The way we organize bundle our application
is through features and plugins. We have the version of both the feature
and the plugins promoted to a higher number for both service pack and major
releases (standard eclipse version naming conventions). The feature lists
the plugins. I guess I would have to go with your advice on
"If you manually customize
your eclispe installation in this manner you are accepting responsibility
over this part of the system and must likewise uninstall it manually too. 
"

Thanks again,
Ravi.

2009/3/2 <Warren_Paul@xxxxxxx>
Hi Ravi,
 
I am not a p2 committer but I
have been following this mailing list for a while.  This is my take
on your questions, in general.  I am sure the p2 professionals will
chime in if I am way off base (which I may be but I am just trying to be
helpful).
 
Installing via dropins is classed
as a manual operation.
 
If you manually customize your
eclispe installation in this manner you are accepting responsibility over
this part of the system and must likewise uninstall it manually too. 
>From looking at the eclispe (3.4) code I have seen that typically you cant
just remove the bundle(s), you must rename them to xyz.jar.del then
p2 will uninstall it.
 
I believe dropins bundle upgrades
are also treated as optional.  I am not sure how best to express this
but my understanding here is that if there are any potential conflicts
then the system will give your dropin bundle upgrade the lowest priority
and therefore it may not happen.  Or put another way official software
updates are given a higher priority.  I am a little unclear on this
myself so this is a best guess.  
 
I think I am also right in saying
that if you wrap your bundle(s) in a feature and also bump the feature
version when a contained bundle is versioned too then p2 is guaranteed
to pick this up; i.e. manage your bundles through features and observe
eclipse's version
numbering and you wont
go too far wrong.
 
Thanks
_Paul

---

From: p2-dev-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:p2-dev-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Ravi Sankar V
Sent: 01 March 2009 07:04
To: P2 developer discussions

Subject: Re: [p2-dev] Installing plug-ins from a local folder

Sorry, there were quite a few issues we faced with p2
and links. It took some time for me to gather the info and summarize. Here
is the list

1) The plugins & features installed via links through p2 don't have
uninstall enabled from the software update manager UI. However, they are
shown under the installed software tab. Every plugin if its installed through
p2 should be uninstalled through p2. That's the p2 rule, right. So, i find
this missing for the links approach. 
2) If the link file is deleted from the dropins/links
folder, then the plugins are still loaded. Effective, once plugins and
features are installed into eclipse via links there is no way to uninstall
them !!
3) Deleting the directory referred in the links file seems to work properly,
but sometimes we observed that the eclipse crashed without loading. This
is intermittent and can be ignored i guess.
4) If the directory referred in the links file is updated, then the update
is not reflected properly. For example, i had an old clear case plugin
installed. I copied a new clearcase version into the same directory. p2
still loaded the previous version. Then I deleted the previous version
and loaded the new plugin alone from the same directory, it too didn't
work. p2 update manager showed the older version still in the installed
software tab, while "manage configuration" showed some errors.
The basic motto is the service pack installation. We ship our plugins and
service pack plugins in the same directory and the directory is referred
by links file and we want the newest plugins to be picked up from this
directory. The workaround we found for this problem is to run clean using
p2 director application.

eclipse.exe -nosplash -consolelog -application org.eclipse.equinox.p2.director.app.application
-clean

5) Sometimes, I don't have the exact reproducible steps, but observed it
quite often, is the following annoying behavior. When the release and service
pack features and plugins are in the same directory, and that directory
is referred by the links file, then the feature picked up is always the
latest. However, some of the plugins are of release version and some of
service pack version. Here is a post that describes the problem. 
http://dev.eclipse.org/newslists/news.eclipse.technology.equinox/msg05430.html

I am not sure if there are bugs logged concerning these issues, but some
of the above are blockers for us to use the links approach using p2. Its
so painful to try a lot of approaches for a simple case of loading local
plugins and yet no working solution. This should have been one of the basic
use case that p2 should support right? 

So, back to my original question.
I want to know the p2 recommended mechanism in eclipse 3.4 of loading
plug-ins using p2 from a local folder.
However,
1) there shouldn't be any copy of the plug-ins created for this purpose
(using local site copies the plugins/features to eclipse plugins/features)
and
2) if the local folder gets updated the p2 should automatically install/uninstall
the plug-ins (this is not working using links).


Thanks,
Ravi.
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