Tycho/category.xml

A category.xml file can be used to include content into a p2 repository and to specify how to display the content in the p2 installation dialog. For it to be used by a Tycho build, it needs to be placed into the root of an eclipse-repository project.

The category.xml format was originally defined by the Eclipse PDE project. There are extensions to the format only supported by p2 and Tycho.

Format overview

Stub category.xml file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<site>
   <!-- Include features -->
   <feature id="feature.id" version="1.4.100.v2009"/>
   <!-- Since Tycho 1.1.0 (https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=407273#c18), features can declare platform-specific compatibility for multi-platform builds -->
   <!-- Examples: https://github.com/mickaelistria/org.eclipse.simrel.build/blob/master/categories/category.xml#L581 -->
   <feature id="linux.specific.feature.id" version="0.0.0" os="linux"/>
 
   <!-- Directly include bundles, without a feature -->
   <bundle id="bundle.id" version="1.3.1.v2013"/>
   <!-- Directly include any iu -->
   <iu id="unit.id"/>
   <!-- Include all IUs matching an expression -->
   <iu>
     <query> 
       <expression type="match">
         <![CDATA[
           id == $0
         ]]>
       </expression>
       <param>another.unit.id</param>
     </query>
   </iu>
 
   <!-- Categories -->
   <feature id="feature.in.category">
      <category name="category.id"/>
   </feature>
   <category-def name="category.id" label="Category Label">
      <description>Details on the category</description>
   </category-def>
 
   <!-- example for a dynamic category -->
   <category-def name="javax" label="Bundles starting with javax."/>
   <iu>
      <category name="javax"/>
      <query><expression type="match">id ~= /javax.*/</expression></query>
   </iu>
</site>

Including artifacts

TODO details on feature, bundle, and iu (since Tycho 0.23.0) elements

Categorizing content

TODO details on category-def and category elements