Interpreting eclipse .classpath file. What does 'kind="con"' and 'exported="true"' mean?

Question

This is the eclipse .classpath file of the eclipse plugin program that I downloaded.

I think that kind="src" and kind="output" is pretty straight forward, as they means the where the source java files and compiled class files are located.

The kind="lib" seems to indicate the jar files the plugin is referencing, but I have something that I'm not sure about.

• What does the kind="con" mean?
• What is it for the exported="true"? I think in order to use this plugin, all the jar files that the plugin refers to should be exported, but only some of them are exported.

Answer 1

1) In kind="con", the con stands for container, which is interpreted by eclipse as a classpath container. As described in that link:

A classpath container provides a way to indirectly reference a set of classpath entries through a classpath entry of kind CPE_CONTAINER

In other words, it enables grouping of other classpath entries in any way and re-use it wherever (including the ability of having different entries for different projects).

2) exported: Say you have Project B that depends on Project C. The dependency is defined as exported=true. Then, another Project A that depends on Project B, will have also Project C present on A'a classpath.

Answer 2

• kind="con" are indicating classpath containers
• exported=true exports the dependency, meaning that any project that has a depedency on your project can see/access the exported dependencies as well.