Files externally added to working directory not showing up in Eclipse

Question

When I make changes to my working directory outside of Eclipse, in particular when I update my project under version control, newly added files will frequently not show up in the package explorer. Usually they'll show up after about 5 or so minutes (no idea why) but today it's been an hour and I kind of need these files so it's getting to be a problem. I tried:

• restarting eclipse
• cleaning and building the project
• opening one of the missing files using File > Open File

The last of these opened the file but didn't get it to show up in the package explorer, and the type represented by that class was still invisible to other classes. Any thoughts?

Answer 1

As discovered, you need to refresh your workspace or project to see changes made to the filesystem outside of eclipse.

The eclipse workspace manages access to the files it controls, fires deltas on file changes to allow incremental builders to operate, etc.

The way to refresh the workspace is to select your project name in Package Explorer and press F5.