Create an Eclipse Java project in command line

Question

I'm trying to automate the creation of an Eclipse Java project.

I need a way to do this using the command line.

I found many articles for this for CDT, but not for the java one.

Is there a way to do that with Java IDE?

In Eclipse a Java project requires at least the two XML files .project and .classpath. Do you want to add the project to a workspace in addition? — howlger
– howlger, Commented Mar 3, 2019 at 14:41
Can you provide a link to those CDT articles? Maybe that processes can be adapted for Java projects. Otherwise I think you could use Maven and the Maven Eclipse plugin to create Maven-based Eclipse projects from the command line (it's no longer maintained though) — kapex
– kapex, Commented Mar 3, 2019 at 14:47

el-teedee · Accepted Answer · 2019-03-03 16:29:44Z

2

Principles of my solution:

get templates of .project and .classpath files from existing projects
in a Shell script, use and customize this template to create new Project required files
in Eclipse, import filesystem folder as a Project (now possible due to created files)

Below is only the relevant part/end of the script, where .project file is created.
Note: I did not need a .classpath file in my case, thus only importing a Project, not Java Project.

# name: the local Eclipse Folder name I give as script arg
# Create Eclipse .project
projectFile="${name}/.project" ;

# below EOF's content comes from an existing real .project file
echo $( cat <<EOF
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<projectDescription>
  <name>${name}</name>
  <comment></comment>
  <projects></projects>
  <buildSpec></buildSpec>
  <natures></natures>
</projectDescription>
EOF
) > ${projectFile};
echo "✓ ${projectFile} created" ;

# Create Eclipse .classpath if needed (in case of Java project, not needed for default Project)
...

After this:

open Eclipse
"File > Import... > Existing Projects into Workspace"
select the project folder

edited Mar 3, 2019 at 16:29

answered Mar 3, 2019 at 14:53

el-teedee

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1 Comment

prime Over a year ago

Perfect, Thank you.

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