CODEWITHSUNDEEP
eclipseeclipse-plugin
tigerjack
tigerjack

Reputation: 1178

eclipse - load plugin "on demand"

I have a lot of plugins installed on Eclipse Luna (including Spring, JBoss, Android, Genymobile, Tomcat, Apache, Axis, ...). enter image description here

However, as you can argue, I don't use them all at the same time. Also, it seems that they slow down Eclipse in many ways. So, what I'd like to do is to prevent eclipse to load them at the startup and instead only as needed. Is there any way to achieve this goal?

Upvotes: 3

Views: 268

Answers (2)

Fredrik
Fredrik

Reputation: 10646

Eclipse is lazy start by default. It will read all plugins manifest to determine their dependencies and if they add themselves to the UI and things like that. But they will only be started if they are actually used.

Say a plugin adds a view. It will be selectable in the show view dialog, but no code will have been loaded until you choose to use it. I believe it's the same thing with buttons on the toolbar and menu items, but if they require code to determine their enabled state (as many do) that will most likely require a full load of the plugin.

You can install the Plugin functionality in Eclipse to get the Plugin Registry view. From there you can see which plugins are actually active. The list will probably be smaller than you think.

However, to make it even smaller:

  • Uninstall plugins you never use
  • Customize your perspective to remove views you never use
  • Customize toolbar and menu to remove buttons and functionality you never use

Removing plugins from automatic startup is not a good idea, since they may rely on some functionality having executed at startup.

Some plugins have a tendency to completely take over your Eclipse installation and load themselves regardless of what you would be doing. I used Aptana as an Eclipse plugin some years ago, and it did just that. I had to create a separate installation just for it. If you are using "heavy weight" plugins that adds a lot of functionality it might be a good idea to keep separate Eclipse installations for them.

Upvotes: 3

Richa
Richa

Reputation: 36

In Windows->Preferences->General->Startup and Shutdown dialog box, there will be a list of installed plugins,select the plugins you want to activate on startup.

Upvotes: 0

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