How to update Eclipse from 2018-09 to 2018-12

Question

I have Eclipse 2018-09. My impressions was that Eclipse was moving to a rolling quarterly release, and by that I presumed I'd magically be offered updates every quarter to the newest. But now that 2018-12 is out, my instance does not detect any new updates.

Looking at the update sites in Windows -> Preferences, Install/Update -> Available Software Sites (incompletely listed below), I notice they seemed to be pinned to specific versions:

• The Eclipse Project Updates: http://download.eclipse.org/eclipse/updates/4.9
• The Eclipse Project Updates: http://download.eclipse.org/eclipse/updates/4.9/categories
• Eclipse Project Repository for 2018-09: http://download.eclipse.org/eclipse/updates/4.9/R-4.9-201809060745
• 2018-09: http://download.eclipse.org/releases/2018-09
• Oracle Enterprise Pack for Eclipse 12.2.1.8 Dependencies: http://download.oracle.com/otn_software/oepe/12.2.1.8/oxygen/repository/dependencies/

I've noticed there is also now an Eclipse Installer, which says it is "The easiest way to install and update your Eclipse Development Environment.". However, there is no description of updating, and when running it and pointing to the existing folder for 2018-09 (yes, I made a backup first to be safe), it does not update that folder but instead just creates a new sub-folder under the existing 2018-09 version called "eclipse" with presumably a complete copy of the new eclipse. So that's a failed attempt.

What is the recommended way of upgrading from 2018-09 to 2018-12? Is it:

1. Manually download a new copy of Eclipse and spend hours configuring it to hopefully be almost the same as the configurations in 2018-09
2. Run the Eclipse installer in some other manner than I already have.
3. Manually updating the update sites (to what values?). If the so, is there a way to specify to always use the latest on the update train?
4. Other?

Answer 1

See Eclipse FAQ - Always enable major upgrades:

To always enable major upgrades of your IDE once and for all:

1. from the Available Software Sites preference page
2. enable the Latest Eclipse release http://download.eclipse.org/releases/latest repository by ticking the checkbox.
3. Apply and Close
4. Check for updates

The similar workflow can be used to hide and disable automatic proposal of major upgrades.

To my knowledge, the update site http://download.eclipse.org/releases/latest exists since Eclipse Photon (4.8) in Window > Preferences: Install/Update > Available Software Sites but is not checked by default.

If you want to change the default of this preference, vote for or comment on Eclipse bug 539281 - Enable http://download.eclipse.org/releases/latest by default.

The two advantages of using the Eclipse Installer over the direct installation of one or more IDE packages are:

• The Eclipse Installer saves disk space when installing multiple IDE packages (by using a shared pool for the plug-ins of all IDE packages)
• The Eclipse Installer makes it easier to contribute to an Eclipse project (advanced mode).