JDT UI/Howto/Create Feature Patch

This page explains how you can create a feature patch. E.g. to add that fix for the most annoying bug ever to the otherwise perfect JDT UI plug-in.

I'll just show how I've produced the output for bug 434941 comment 17, a feature patch on top of 4.4.1 that patches the org.eclipse.jdt.ui plug-in in the org.eclipse.jdt feature. You can adapt the versions/bundles to your concrete use case. Note that patching multiple features is a bit more complicated, since you need to create multiple patch features that depend on each other and mirror the dependencies between the original features.

Setup

• start up with the Eclipse version you want to create a patch for (4.4.1 / M20140925-0400)
• clone git://git.eclipse.org/gitroot/jdt/eclipse.jdt.ui.git
• import the projects you need to touch (org.eclipse.jdt.ui)
• switch to the right branch (R4_4_maintenance) and make sure the patch is applied to your workspace

Shortcut if you just want to patch your existing install

(Skip this section if you want to create a feature patch that others can use as well!)

• select the project and choose Export > Deployable plug-ins and fragments
• select the plug-in to export (org.eclipse.jdt.ui)
• select Destination > Install into host
• click Finish
• confirm messages, restart, and enjoy

Create patch feature

• create New > Other... > Feature Patch
• give the project a unique name (org.eclipse.jdt.ui.bug434941.sortmembers)
• click Browse and select the feature that contains the plug-in (org.eclipse.jdt)
• click Finish

• In the feature.xml editor, go to the Plug-ins tab and add the plug-in to patch (org.eclipse.jdt.ui)
• fill out the rest of the forms.

feature.xml for this example

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <feature id="org.eclipse.jdt.ui.bug434941.sortmembers" label="Sort Members patch for bug 434941" version="1.0.0" provider-name="Eclipse.org">   <description> Sort Members patch for bug 434941 </description>   <copyright> Copyright (c) 2014 IBM Corporation and others </copyright>   <license url="http://www.eclipse.org/legal/epl-v10.html"> Eclipse Public License v1.0   http://www.eclipse.org/legal/epl-v10.html </license>   <requires> <import feature="org.eclipse.jdt" version="3.10.0.v20140910-2310" patch="true"/> </requires>   <plugin id="org.eclipse.jdt.ui" download-size="0" install-size="0" version="0.0.0" unpack="false"/>   </feature>

• due to p2 bug 262009, you also have to create a New > Category Definition
  • save the category.xml file in your patch feature project
  • add a dummy category and add your new patch feature

resulting category.xml

<source lang="xml"> <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <site> <feature url="features/org.eclipse.jdt.ui.bug434941.sortmembers_1.0.0.jar" id="org.eclipse.jdt.ui.bug434941.sortmembers" version="1.0.0" patch="true"> <category name="org.eclipse.jdt.ui.sortmembers.bug434941"/> </feature> <category-def name="org.eclipse.jdt.ui.sortmembers.bug434941" label="Dummy category for p2 bug 262009"> <description> Dummy; please vote for https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=262009 . </description> </category-def> </site>

Build and export feature patch

• open the feature.xml > Overview, and click Export Wizard, or open the "Deployable features" wizard under File > Export...
• make sure your feature is checked and specify an (empty) output directory
• switch to Options tab
• click the Browse button after Categorize repository and select your category.xml
• click Finish and go get a coffee

Publish

• when the export is done, publish the output directory on a website or put it into a ZIP for manual installs