Downloading Eclipse plug-in update sites for offline installation

A plug-in that I want to install provides an update site for installation. However, the Eclipse installation that I want to install it to is on a machine that is not connected to the Internet. Is there a way for me to access the site (HTTP, FTP, etc.) to download the files in it for offline installation?

Eclipse offers a way of mirroring these sites automatically, either through the command line or through ant tasks.

Mirror based on p2 information

$eclipse_home/eclipse -application org.eclipse.equinox.p2.artifact.repository.mirrorApplication -source $1 -destination $2
$eclipse_home/eclipse -application org.eclipse.equinox.p2.metadata.repository.mirrorApplication -source $1 -destination $2

Reference: Equinox p2 repository mirroring

Mirror based on site.xml information

java -jar $eclipse_home/plugins/org.eclipse.equinox.launcher_*.jar -application org.eclipse.update.core.standaloneUpdate -command mirror -from $from -to $to

Reference: Running the update manager from the command line

You can follow the evolution of these scripts in my script repository.

After struggling with mirroring for some time, I realized that it is much easier (at least, for me) to use "wget" instead.

In short:

1. Download the site:

   wget --recursive --no-parent http://url.of/updatesite

2. Take the content of the downloaded update site and move it to your offline environment

3. Add your offline update site directory to the list of available software sites via "Local..." button.

You can read about it with more details here.

Most Eclipse plug-ins can be installed without the Eclipse updater, by copying the required JARs available at the update site, into the plugins and features directories of the Eclipse installation.

In certain cases, it is necessary to start Eclipse with a -clean switch.

Here's an example of how to do this for the m2eclipse plugin:

1. The m2eclipse update site is http://m2eclipse.sonatype.org/update. Identifying the list of JARs required is the first step. This is normally found in the site.xml file; in this case, you'll find it in http://m2eclipse.sonatype.org/update/site.xml.
2. Filter the list of JARs to be downloaded to the version of the plugin that you intend to use. This can be determined by the version attribute for each "feature". If you are lucky, you'll find the description of the JAR in the category node.
3. Note the url attribute of each JAR that needs to be downloaded. This will include the subdirectory on the server where the JAR is available, and also the directory in the Eclipse installation where they need to be placed.

PS: This method is a bit hackish, but it is based off the site-map reference. But do refer to the update

Update

I haven't attempted this, but you can create a local mirror site, from where everyone else can pickup the Eclipse plug-ins. In Galileo, this can be done by running the Eclipse updater in the standalone mode via the mirror command.

You can mirror p2 sites using Ant tasks:

<target name="springide">
    <echo>springide</echo> 
    <p2.mirror verbose="true">
        <repository location="${REPO_HOME}/springide" name="springide" append="true"/>
        <source>
            <repository location="http://springide.org/updatesite" />
        </source>
        <iu id="Core / Spring IDE" version="" />
        <iu id="Extensions / Spring IDE" version="" />
        <iu id="Integrations / Spring IDE" version="" />
        <iu id="Resources / Spring IDE" version="" />
    </p2.mirror>
</target>

or findbugs:

<target name="findbugs">

<echo>findbugs</echo>
    <p2.mirror verbose="true">
        <repository location="${REPO_HOME}/findbugs" name="findbugs" append="true"/>
        <source>
            <repository location="http://findbugs.cs.umd.edu/eclipse/" />
        </source>
        <iu id="edu.umd.cs.findbugs.plugin.eclipse.feature.group" version="" />
    </p2.mirror>
</target>

In order for this to work you have to run ant tasks in the same JVM as eclipse.

You can find IU ID:s by opening "Software Updates" and copy it from there. In Eclipse 3.5 there should be a More... button, in 3.4 you have to click on properties button.

Eclipse plugins usually depend on other plugins. It's kind of hard to trace the dependencies. It's better to download all dependencies using update site once, and you can distribute to other Eclipse dropins. For Eclipse 3.4 or newer, you can use dropins which is an Eclipse feature. This way you don’t have to install plugin from update site every time you have to re-install your Eclipse. Read on http://michsan.web.id/content/how-install-eclipse-plugins-offline

If you can't see the web, I'll give you some description

Prepare directory for external plugins

Create special directory to hold our beloved plugins, e.g. in /home/ichsan/eclipse-dropins we will install Maven plugin: m2eclipse.

mkdir /home/ichsan/eclipse-dropins

For now on, we'll call this directory as DROPINS

Preparing sandbox

Next, by using Git we'll create an Eclipse sandbox. The point is to install one plugin on a fresh Eclipse. Instead of installing fresh Eclipse every time we want to install a new plugin, we'd better use Git to create new branch of fresh Eclipse.

First, extract/install new Eclipse to a directory e.g. /home/ichsan/eclipse-sandbox (so that we'll find /home/ichsan/eclipse-sandbox/eclipse.ini). We call the directory as ECLIPSE_SANDBOX.

Next, commit the fresh installation. This step should be done once only.

cd $ECLIPSE_SANDBOX
git init
git add .
git commit -am "Fresh Eclipse"

Install plugin on sandbox

Now is the interesting part. Supposed we have to install m2eclipse plugin. We will install this on new Git branch so that the master branch will stay clean or stay intact.

cd $ECLIPSE_SANDBOX
git checkout -b "m2eclipse"

Now, we start the Eclipse of the ECLIPSE_SANDBOX and download the plugin. Once we're done, we shut the Eclipse down and check what new directories or files have been created (using Git). Remember that, we only care about new plugins and features directories and the contents inside them. So, we won't copy the rest into dropins.

# Prepare the m2eclipse plugin directories
mkdir -p $DROPINS/m2eclipse/eclipse/plugins
mkdir -p $DROPINS/m2eclipse/eclipse/features

cd $ECLIPSE_SANDBOX
for f in $(git status | sed "s/#\t//g" | grep -P "^plugins" ); do cp -R $f $DROPINS/m2eclipse/eclipse/plugins; done
for f in $(git status | sed "s/#\t//g" | grep -P "^features"); do cp -R $f $DROPINS/m2eclipse/eclipse/features; done

# Make the directory read only
chmod -R -w $DROPINS/m2eclipse

# Commit changes
git add .
git add -u
git commit -am "M2Eclipse plugin installed"


# Back to master branch to make Eclipse clean again and ready for other plugin installations
git checkout master
Installing the plugin

Just copy the directory of DROPINS/m2eclipse into ECLIPSE_HOME/dropins or create a symbolic link. And we're done!

cd $ECLIPSE_HOME/dropins ln -s $DROPINS/m2eclipse

Another way is to backup differences between fresh-Eclipse commit and after-plugin-installation commit.

for i in `git diff hashFreshEclipse hashPluginInstall --name-only`;do 
  if [ -f $i ]; then
    tar -r -f m2e-android.tar $i
  fi
done
gzip m2e-android.tar