Platform-specific dependency creeping into Eclipse plugin

Question

I have implemented a graph editor with Eclipse EMF and GMF frameworks. After completing my project, I realized that this plugin shows dependencies (not explicitly added by me) on some OS-specific plugins.i.e:org.eclipse.ui.win32, org.eclipse.swt.win32.win32.x86. And whenever I have tried to bypass this dependency at my update site something went wrong with the installation process of the plugin.

As such it is impossible to run my plugin in *nix environment or even win64 machines.This seems a very heavy constraint dependency to me. Am I doing something in a wrong way? Or is there no other way of building Eclipse plugins which are cross-platform other than building the project from scratch at each different OSs?

Answer 1

We created a similar style of plug-in in my project. Under "Plug-in Dependencies" in Package Explorer I can see org.eclipse.swt.win32 listed, but it is not listed in required plug-ins in plugin.xml.

We also successfully created an update site which works for Mac users without issue.

So, yes it is possible to have a cross-platform plug-in.

I would suggest you first try to to use "Export..." -> "Deployable plug-ins and fragments" to create a bunch of jar files for your plug-in. See if these can be successfully installed by copying into the drop-ins folder of a fresh eclipse installation. Do this first on a Win32 install, then try on another platform. Once you have that working, use the new Eclipse installation to create the Update site.