Starting Eclipse w/ Specific Workspace

Question

From http://help.eclipse.org/help21/topic/org.eclipse.platform.doc.user/tasks/running_eclipse.htm:

Use the following command-line argument:

-data your_workspace_location

For example,

-data c:\users\robert\myworkspace

you can also use UNIX-style relative path names such as

-data ../workspace

even under Windows, in case something doesnt like colons or backslashes in parameters, like Jumplist Launcher

With the -data switch

Setting a specific location for the workspace with -data

To use the -data command line argument, simply add -data your_workspace_location (for example, -data c:\users\robert\myworkspace) to the Target field in the shortcut properties, or include it explicitly on your command line.

From: http://help.eclipse.org/help21/index.jsp?topic=/org.eclipse.platform.doc.user/tasks/running_eclipse.htm

We set the default workspace for students at a high school by modifying the shortcut properties. In this case, we operate a Windows 7 environment. The default workspace is on a student's network share mapped as the H: drive so we added -data h:\workspace. The screenshot shows exactly where.

note that you can use UNIX-style relative path names such as

-data ../workspace

even under Windows, in case something doesn't like colons or backslashes in parameters, like Jumplist Launcher

Old question, I know, but just wanted to point out that you may need to add quotes around the target workspace path. For example; I tried C:\Eclipse\eclipse.exe -data E:\Eclipse Projects2 and it would open a blank, default, workspace while doing C:\Eclipse\eclipse.exe -data "E:\Eclipse Projects2" allowed it to use the existing workspace. I'm guessing this varies based on OS and/or Eclipse version, but I'm not sure exactly what factors into this, so just try both ways until you get one to load the correct/existing workspace.