CODEWITHSUNDEEP
eclipse-plugin
macou
macou

Reputation: 1

What is the point of creating plugin.xml and MANIFEST.MF in eclipse plug-in project as they pointing to the same while open in editor?

While creating an Eclipse plugin project there two files will be created inside Plugin.xml and MANIFEST.MF, as both the file, is pointing to the same while opening the files in the editor then what is need of creating them twice. I am very new in this plugin development so I searched a lot be didn't get any proper answer for this.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 668

Answers (2)

greg-449
greg-449

Reputation: 111218

Eclipse uses one editor to show you the contents of the plugin.xml, MANIFEST.MF and the build.properties.

This is because the three files have related contents so it makes sense to have one editor for them all. But the contents of the files are different. The plugin.xml is mainly concerned with extension points, the build.properties with information needed by the plugin build, and the MANIFEST.MF contains OSGi information such as dependencies and exports.

Historically most things were in the plugin.xml, but this was changed long ago when Eclipse adopted the OSGi standard which puts some things in the MANIFEST.MF.

Upvotes: 2

nitind
nitind

Reputation: 20003

They do not have the same contents. Look at their on disk contents outside of Eclipse if you doubt it. Both files affect how your plug-in behaves within the Eclipse runtime, so it's conceptually simpler to present that in a single multi-page editor.

Upvotes: 1

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