What is the best way to upgrade from Eclipse 3.3 to 3.4 (or future releases)

Question

In the past I have had problems upgrading from release to release of Eclipse. I was wondering how the Eclipse users on StackOverflow dealt with upgrading from release to release of Eclipse.

• Is using a Distro the solution?
• Staying on a past release point until you are forced forward, a good idea?

Lately I have just reloaded from scratch; renaming my root Eclipse dir and downloaded the latest release, plus an update cycle. I have only lost my workspaces (no code was lost) once using this method.

Thanks in advance

Answer 1

I usually just rename the old one to something like eclipse3.3 and install the new one in the same place. Since a lot of plugins usually break with a new version anyway, in my experience, I find that to do this and then reinstall my plugins is the easiest solution. There are rarely any problems with the workspace itself.

Answer 2

Starting with Eclipse 3.5, it should be possible to update in-place to new major versions...but only if the update will leave you with a clean/working install.

The key thing you will need for this to work is to add the update site for the new eclipse release. The most comprehensive list of updates I've seen is at http://ekkescorner.wordpress.com/eclipse/update-sites/

Answer 3

Read this eclipse FAQ question.

Answer 4

I always use the built-in update system. Go to Help -> Software Updates