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FAQ How do I upgrade Eclipse IDE?

Upgrading Existing Eclipse Features

Eclipse Galileo (3.5) and beyond

To upgrade installed software, do the following:

  1. Help > Check for Updates
  2. If updates are found, proceed through the install wizard and click Finish at the end
  3. If you are upgrading the platform itself, when you are prompted to restart it is strongly recommended to do so. A restart many not be required when updating other features, but always select to restart if you are unsure.

Eclipse Ganymede (3.4)

To upgrade installed software, do the following:

  1. Help > Software Updates...
  2. Switch to the 'Installed Software' pane
  3. Select one or more installed items to be upgraded
  1. Select existing items or use 'Add Site...' to add new features...

Eclipse Europa (3.3) and below

Run the Update Manager, using

Help > Software Updates > Find and Install... 
  > Search for updates of the currently installed features

The Update Manager will visit the Update site(s) for all your installed features/plugins and offer updates if any exist.

However, in Eclipse 3.3 or earlier, it is NOT possible to upgrade the Eclipse platform itself, only its features. So, you could for example upgrade the CVS feature or the PDE feature from 3.2.0 to 3.2.1, but not eclipse.exe itself.

Fresh install

Occasionally you won't be able to upgrade Eclipse or certain features due to incompatible changes in the updte technology. In these cases you will need to download a fresh install. Download a new build from the Eclipse download Web site (http://www.eclipse.org/downloads) and unzip it in a new directory. We strongly recommend against unzipping over your existing Eclipse version as unexpected side effects may occur, including (but not limited to): nausea, vomitting, shortness of breath, corrupt installation.

Complete upgrade instructions are always included in the Eclipse readme_eclipse.html file included with every build in the readme directory.

Upgrading Other Features

Upgrading other features (like CDT, PDT, WTP...) can be done without the need to download a new platform binary, but because many projects align very closely (eg., the Eclipse 3.2 / Callisto or Eclipse 3.3 / Europa release trains) you will likely need to upgrade the Eclipse platform as well.

See Also:




This FAQ was originally published in Official Eclipse 3.0 FAQs. Copyright 2004, Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. This text is made available here under the terms of the Eclipse Public License v1.0.

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