Eclipse Source Builds (Source from Zip)

Table of Contents

  1. What is an Eclipse source build?
  2. Getting the source
  3. Building Eclipse using Ant
  4. Setting the bootclasspath
  5. Supported build platforms
  6. Known limitations


What is an Eclipse Source Build?

Eclipse source builds provide developers with an automated method for compiling the Java code, generating javadoc, and finally, creating a zip file of an Eclipse runtime from a downloaded source tree. The end result of a source build is a runnable Eclipse.


Getting the Source

This source build download contains all the Java code, non-Java resources, and scripts that build a particular version of Eclipse. Although you can manually edit build.xml files in each feature and plug-in, they are typically generated by the Eclipse pde-build plug-in. As a result you will need to download a fresh source build zip file when major changes occur to Eclipse source, such as the addition or removal of plug-ins. The version of Eclipse a particular source build will create is embedded in the source build zip file name. For example, builds Eclipse version 3.0


Building Eclipse using Ant and a JDK


Produces an Eclipse SDK using the Java compiler you have installed.

System Requirements

  1. Ant 1.6.1 or higher
  2. JDK 1.4
  4. 1 GB free disk space
  5. Source build zip from

Initial Setup

Install Ant and a JDK as per each program's instructions. Minimally you will need the following environment variables set.
  1. Add the Ant bin directory to your path.
  2. Set the JAVA_HOME environment variable to the root of your JDK installation.
  4. (Windows 98) Increase the default environment space as specified here.

Run the Build

  1. Extract the eclipse-sourceBuild-srcIncluded-*.zip to an empty directory. Extract using tar if using a *nix drop.
  2. cd to the directory.
  3. Execute build -os <osType> -ws <windowSystemType> -arch <architecture> [-bc <bootclasspath>] [-compilelibs] [-target <target>]

      Parameter Name Description
      osType Target operating system (See supported types).
      windowSystemType Target windowing system (See supported types).
      architecture Target system architecture (See supported types).
      bootclasspath (optional) The list of bootclasspath jars to compile against using either a colon or semi-colon as separators. The jars that make up a bootclasspath are part of any JDK or JRE. Typically this parameter is only specified if you are cross compiling Eclipse or using a JDK which does not use a "rt.jar" to contain the java libraries. The default is the rt.jar on your path.
      compilelibs Flag to force the recompilation of native libraries.
      target (optional)

      The Ant target from build.xml to execute. The default target is run and performs a complete build and generates an install. Other valid targets are:

      • compile (compiles Java code and generates javadoc)
      • clean
      • install

Install Eclipse





Run Eclipse with the desired command line parameters.

Supported Platforms


win32 win32 x86
linux gtk x86
linux gtk ppc
linux gtk ppc64
linux gtk x86_64
linux gtk ia64
linux motif x86
macosx carbon ppc


hpux motif PA_RISC
hpux motif ia64_32
qnx photon x86
solaris motif sparc
solaris gtk sparc


Known Limitations

  2. Only Java source code is compiled. *.dll, *so, *sl and Eclipse executables are all provided prebuilt in this build process. The linux-gtk-ppc64, linux-gtk-ia64, hpux-motif-ia64_32 and hpux-motif-ia64 configurations will require a re-compilation of the eclipse executable and swt libaries and copying these files to the apppropriate directories. This can be accomplished by using the -compilelibs flag when running the build. The instructions on recompiling the eclipse executable and recompiling the swt libraries available in the SWT FAQ are also a useful reference. This document also includes a list of the prerequisites for running SWT on Linux GTK
  3. If you wish to use a 1.5 JDK to build Eclipse, change the value for javacSource to 1.4 in the build.xml of your source build.


Using the source build to construct a new Eclipse port

The Eclipse platform releng team has limited hardware, software and time to compile Eclipse on every conceivable platform. If you would like to enhance the source build scripts to build eclipse on a platform that is not currently included, please follow the following steps: