4.1. Multiple workspaces¶
4.1.1. Why?¶
Why would any one like to have multiple workspaces?
Why? is the most boring question. How is what we should look forward
to. But for the impatient, here are possible reasons why multiple workspaces
are a good idea.
4.1.1.1. Project Name¶
Eclipse has a severe limitation. It cannot have two projects of the same name in one instance/workspace. If you are working on different versions or branches of the same project, Eclipse would not allow you to keep them in workspace. Under such situation, you would like to have different workspaces.
4.1.1.3. Too Much Clutter¶
Possibly, you are a very big fan of Eclipse and you would create every project in eclipse. If your default Eclipse installation has many projects, you may choose to group projects and make them part of different workspaces.
4.1.1.4. Workspace settings¶
Few settings are stored by default in workspace. If you are working on different project with different requirements, you may choose to use different Workspace.
e.g. Eclipse settings on using White Spaces is stored in workspace. If your projects use different settings, it would be advisable to use different workspace for these projects.
4.1.2. Set workspace via Command Line¶
The command line parameter for workspace is --data
If you run Eclipse as eclipse -data d:\eclipse.workspace, Eclipse would
start using the workspace as d:\eclipse.workspace
4.1.3. Create a Desktop shortcut for Workspace¶
If you want to create Windows shortcut to start Eclipse with default shortcut,
- on the Windows Desktop
- Select
- Select . Point to the Eclipse executable
- Add
-data D:\eclipse.workspace2
The newly created shortcut will use D:\eclipse.workspace2 as the default workspace.
4.1.4. Create preferences to use a default workspace¶
You can either choose a default workspace, or let Eclipse ask you every time to choose a workspace (if you do not specify which workspace to be used).
Eclipse preferences to select startup workspace behaviour