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I use Eclipse for Java (mostly Android) development with my work is split into a variety of projects which interlink in a variety of ways (mostly Android libraries, some pure Java stuff).

When it comes to Source Control, I want to keep groups of Projects in single repositories. This is mainly because I don't want to have dozens of repositories, just because I have dozens of projects!!

MercurialEclipse is hopeless for this - it will only work on a 1:1 basis between Project and Repositories - so that's out.

EGit seemed promising, there are a number of articles (here and elsewhere) which demonstrate how to put many projects into a single .git repo - and I managed to get this part of it working after a mere 3 hours of head-on-desk moments!!

It's shaky-as-hell tho - commits seems a potluck affair (first attempt always seems to fail - 2nd usually works!?).

Worse still are the problems with Android libraries tho - Eclipse thinks they exist - but then they don't - then they do - then they don't! Changes to Project Properties sometimes won't save (never a problem before I 'source controlled' the project) and so I'm giving up on EGit completely.

So - are there any other options I've missed or do I have to actually run source control from outside Eclipse!?

  • Do you have a strong need to keep all the projects together in one repository? I'm just starting the process of transitioning from subversion to mercurial myself, and my understanding is that DVCS are not so good at that... - http://mercurial.selenic.com/wiki/UnderstandingMercurial#line-252 - http://www.webdevelopment.nicholastuck.com/tools/one-project-one-repository-mercurial-used-right/ – kylewm Oct 22 '11 at 15:54
  • I don't really need to keep the projects together, I just don't want to have to create a new repo for EVERY project! If I were to use MercurialEclipse and BitBucket, for example, I'd have to create a new repo on BitBucket for every project I wanted to VC - which is OTT to say the least! It does seem I have to either have 1 repo for everything or 1 for every project tho - neither is ideal... –  Oct 22 '11 at 17:14
  • You may want to check out this extension: http://mercurial.selenic.com/wiki/Subrepository. I have no personal experience with it but it was recommended to me for managing multiple projects in a single repo. Pretty sure it won't help with Eclipse integration at all though (its whole "flat structure" requirement is maybe the only feature of Eclipse that I really and truly hate) – kylewm Oct 22 '11 at 20:42

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OK - I've spent a bit of time with this and I've found what I think is a decent compromise using MercurialEclipse.

It relies on setting-up version-control outside of Eclipse - but once you've done that, you can work within Eclipse (using MercurialEclipse) for changes/commits/pushes.

First job is to remove the projects from the Eclipse Workspace (but NOT the filesystem).

I then move all the projects I want to group together into a subfolder within the workspace like this

WORKSPACE
    MYREPOFOLDER
        PROJECT1
        PROJECT2
        ...

I then use a tool (in this case TortoiseHG) to create a repository in the MYREPOFOLDER folder. I actually clone a BitBucket Repository but whatever works for you...

Still using TortoiseHG, I add the PROJECT1, PROJECT2 folders into that repository and do a 'FIRST COMMIT' on them.

Then, in Eclipse I use the Import->Mercurial tool to import some or all of the projects from that Repository. MercurialEclipse is smart enough to find projects even tho they're not in the 'root' of the repository and will commit and push changes AOK (well, as far as I've tested it!!).

So there you have it - one repo with multiple projects and only a bit of work outside Eclipse to make it work - I hope this helps someone!

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As far as I know, you have to run source control outside of Eclipse if you are managing the whole workspace as a whole. Eclipse will only look for changes inside projects in its workspace, not the workspace metadata and other folders that are not projects.

Marcel Offermans
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  • I should say that EGit works well enough to manage multiple projects in a repository (once you've danced around a lot) - the problems start when you reference a project from a project in another repository - Eclipse simply has some sort of a heart-attack and cannot remember it's own name... You could certainly put your ENTIRE workspace into a single .git repository using EGit tho - should that be your thing. p.s. and you don't mind random error messages which go away when you try again.. –  Oct 22 '11 at 13:42