Locate every local Eclipse workspace

Question

I would like to clean up the Ubuntu machine I am working on. In particular, I would like to check for every Eclipse workspace of Java projects eventually abandoned on the machine. Since the machine has been previously used by other users, I do not know how many they are, and how extensively they could be scattere around. Is there a strategy that allows me to do that? By now, I approached the problem as suggested by the answers provided to the question: How to find my old Eclipse workspace?

Unfortunately, I did not find them satisfactory, since they do not allow to proceed with an exhaustive across the whole system.

How many workspace(s) do you have? And why are they scattered everywhere on the system? Anyway, `locate .metadata` should do it. — Elliott Frisch, Mar 01 '19 at 16:46
Unknown. The machine has been previously used by other users. — Worice, Mar 01 '19 at 16:57
Sure, but the system is ok, and there is a lot of stuff that has to be preserved. I am on a more selective approach, then. — Worice, Mar 01 '19 at 17:06
Stuff that has to be preserved should be in source control; not on your machine. — Elliott Frisch, Mar 01 '19 at 17:10
Perhaps who preceded me what not aware of some good practices. — Worice, Mar 01 '19 at 17:14

kapex · Accepted Answer · 2019-03-01T16:49:06.697

2

Every Eclipse workspace contains a directory named .metadata. Searching for this directory name should give you all workspaces.

find / -type d -name '.metadata'

If you want to clean up Eclipse installations from the system, check my answer on How to uninstall Eclipse for a list of other directories that are usually left behind after removing Eclipse.

edited Mar 01 '19 at 16:49

answered Mar 01 '19 at 16:44

kapex

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Simple and effective indeed. I did not consider to approach the problem this way. Thank you! – Worice Mar 01 '19 at 17:15

Locate every local Eclipse workspace

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