fail to open eclipse when I previously configure one project with Java 11 jre

Question

I am using version 4.7.3 of Eclipse. I am on a MAC. Until yesterday, all my project were configured with Java 8. Yesterday, I configured only one project with Java 11 jre. Today, when I tried to open Eclipse, I had the following error

!SESSION 2020-12-05 10:08:55.574 -----------------------------------------------
eclipse.buildId=4.7.3.M20180330-0640
java.version=11.0.9
java.vendor=Oracle Corporation
BootLoader constants: OS=macosx, ARCH=x86_64, WS=cocoa, NL=fr_FR
Framework arguments:  -product org.eclipse.epp.package.jee.product -keyring /Users/admin/.eclipse_keyring
Command-line arguments:  -os macosx -ws cocoa -arch x86_64 -product org.eclipse.epp.package.jee.product -keyring /Users/admin/.eclipse_keyring

!ENTRY org.eclipse.core.net 1 0 2020-12-05 10:08:59.662
!MESSAGE System property http.nonProxyHosts has been set to local|*.local|169.254/16|*.169.254/16 by an external source. This value will be overwritten using the values from the preferences

!ENTRY org.eclipse.core.resources 2 10035 2020-12-05 10:09:05.489
!MESSAGE The workspace exited with unsaved changes in the previous session; refreshing workspace to recover changes.

!ENTRY org.eclipse.osgi 4 0 2020-12-05 10:09:06.389
!MESSAGE Application error
!STACK 1
org.eclipse.e4.core.di.InjectionException: java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: javax/annotation/PostConstruct
    at org.eclipse.e4.core.internal.di.InjectorImpl.internalMake(InjectorImpl.java:410)
    at org.eclipse.e4.core.internal.di.InjectorImpl.make(InjectorImpl.java:318)
    at org.eclipse.e4.core.contexts.ContextInjectionFactory.make(ContextInjectionFactory.java:162)
    at org.eclipse.e4.ui.internal.workbench.swt.E4Application.createDefaultHeadlessContext(E4Application.java:491)
    at org.eclipse.e4.ui.internal.workbench.swt.E4Application.createDefaultContext(E4Application.java:505)
    at org.eclipse.e4.ui.internal.workbench.swt.E4Application.createE4Workbench(E4Application.java:204)
    at org.eclipse.ui.internal.Workbench.lambda$3(Workbench.java:614)
    at org.eclipse.core.databinding.observable.Realm.runWithDefault(Realm.java:336)
    at org.eclipse.ui.internal.Workbench.createAndRunWorkbench(Workbench.java:594)
    at org.eclipse.ui.PlatformUI.createAndRunWorkbench(PlatformUI.java:148)
    at org.eclipse.ui.internal.ide.application.IDEApplication.start(IDEApplication.java:151)
    at org.eclipse.equinox.internal.app.EclipseAppHandle.run(EclipseAppHandle.java:196)
    at org.eclipse.core.runtime.internal.adaptor.EclipseAppLauncher.runApplication(EclipseAppLauncher.java:134)
    at org.eclipse.core.runtime.internal.adaptor.EclipseAppLauncher.start(EclipseAppLauncher.java:104)
    at org.eclipse.core.runtime.adaptor.EclipseStarter.run(EclipseStarter.java:388)
    at org.eclipse.core.runtime.adaptor.EclipseStarter.run(EclipseStarter.java:243)
    at java.base/jdk.internal.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    at java.base/jdk.internal.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:62)
    at java.base/jdk.internal.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
    at java.base/java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:566)
    at org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.Main.invokeFramework(Main.java:653)
    at org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.Main.basicRun(Main.java:590)
    at org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.Main.run(Main.java:1499)
Caused by: java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: javax/annotation/PostConstruct
    at org.eclipse.e4.core.internal.di.InjectorImpl.inject(InjectorImpl.java:124)
    at org.eclipse.e4.core.internal.di.InjectorImpl.internalMake(InjectorImpl.java:399)
    ... 22 more
Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: javax.annotation.PostConstruct cannot be found by org.eclipse.e4.core.di_1.6.100.v20170421-1418
    at org.eclipse.osgi.internal.loader.BundleLoader.findClassInternal(BundleLoader.java:433)
    at org.eclipse.osgi.internal.loader.BundleLoader.findClass(BundleLoader.java:395)
    at org.eclipse.osgi.internal.loader.BundleLoader.findClass(BundleLoader.java:387)
    at org.eclipse.osgi.internal.loader.ModuleClassLoader.loadClass(ModuleClassLoader.java:150)
    at java.base/java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:521)
    ... 24 more

Here is the eclipse.ini file

-startup
../Eclipse/plugins/org.eclipse.equinox.launcher_1.4.0.v20161219-1356.jar
--launcher.library
../Eclipse/plugins/org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.cocoa.macosx.x86_64_1.1.551.v20171108-1834
-product
org.eclipse.epp.package.jee.product
-showsplash
org.eclipse.epp.package.common
--launcher.defaultAction
openFile
--launcher.defaultAction
openFile
--launcher.appendVmargs
-vmargs
-Dosgi.requiredJavaVersion=1.8
-Dosgi.instance.area.default=@user.home/eclipse-workspace
-XX:+UseG1GC
-XX:+UseStringDeduplication
--add-modules=ALL-SYSTEM
-XstartOnFirstThread
-Dorg.eclipse.swt.internal.carbon.smallFonts
-Dosgi.requiredJavaVersion=1.8
-Xms2048m
-Xmx6g
--add-modules=ALL-SYSTEM
-Xdock:icon=../Resources/Eclipse.icns
-XstartOnFirstThread
-Dorg.eclipse.swt.internal.carbon.smallFonts
-javaagent:/Applications/Eclipse.app/Contents/Eclipse/lombok.jar

I read several post about this error, but none resolved this issue

Answer 1

Your Eclipse is trying to run using the Java 11 installation, but 4.7.3 is too old to work with Java 11.

You can upgrade to the current Eclipse 2020-09 (4.17) (soon to be 2020-12) which can run with Java 11 (in fact it requires Java 11 or later).

Or you can edit the eclipse.ini and add a -vm setting to specify the older Java 8.

On macOS the eclipse.ini is in the Eclipse.app - /Applications/Eclipse.app/Contents/Eclipse/eclipse.ini