Bug#353360: eclipse: Should respect Java in /etc/alternatives

[Michael Koch]

On Fri, Feb 17, 2006 at 01:04:36PM -0500, Stephen Touset wrote:
> Debian's alternatives system exists for a reason, and should not be 
> circumvented by packages choosing their own Java VM. Unless there's a 
> compelling reason to keep /etc/eclipse/java_home around, Eclipse should 
> default to using whichever Java is specified in /etc/alternatives.

The alternates system doesnt fit into the Java world. Eclipse needs more
then just the java runtime binary. It needs whole Java Runtime
environment.

The solution with /etc/eclipse/java_home is an interim solution until we
have a more generic solution.

> For those who may wish to run Eclipse under alternate VMs (and who 
> already do so), Eclipse could use a configuration option, flag, or 
> environment variable to choose a different Java VM.

In Debian applications must work without the setting of an environment
variable. That's a must set by the Debian Policy. This doesn't really
fit into the Java world unfortunately. Therefore we created the
/etc/eclipse/java_home and ~/.eclipse/eclipserc solution.


Cheers,
Michael
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