Install eclipse plugins via the command line

I am always a fan of making features usable on the command line. I use Ubuntu a bunch and one task I started was to write a script to install all of may favourite packages I like. One of the packages I love it Eclipse. It gives me the same experience across operating systems. Has many features for many different programming languages.

I asked myself today "I wonder if I can install eclipse plugins on the command line?" The amount of plugins I like to have installed in eclipse is numerous. From PyDev to SubClipse to CDT. Having to go in and select all of these each time is time consuming. As well having to add in the new repos for plugins outside of the standard version repo was also annoying. It turns out you can very easily install eclipse plugins with the command line

The Basic syntax is

eclipse -application org.eclipse.equinox.p2.director -repository < repo_link > -installIU < plugin > 

To find the plugin names in eclipse to go Help -> Install New Software -> Select a repo -> select a plugin -> go to More -> General Information -> Identifier;

Here is an example list of command in a script that installed many of the features I use.

    eclipse -application org.eclipse.equinox.p2.director -repository http://download.eclipse.org/releases/juno/ -installIU org.eclipse.cdt.feature.group/
    eclipse -application org.eclipse.equinox.p2.director -repository http://download.eclipse.org/releases/juno/ -installIU org.eclipse.egit.feature.group
    eclipse -application org.eclipse.equinox.p2.director -repository http://download.eclipse.org/releases/juno/ -installIU org.eclipse.cdt.sdk.feature.group
    eclipse -application org.eclipse.equinox.p2.director -repository http://download.eclipse.org/releases/juno/ -installIU org.eclipse.linuxtools.cdt.libhover.feature.group
    eclipse -application org.eclipse.equinox.p2.director -repository http://download.eclipse.org/releases/juno/ -installIU org.eclipse.wst.xml_ui.feature.feature.group
    eclipse -application org.eclipse.equinox.p2.director -repository http://download.eclipse.org/releases/juno/ -installIU org.eclipse.wst.web_ui.feature.feature.group
    eclipse -application org.eclipse.equinox.p2.director -repository http://download.eclipse.org/releases/juno/ -installIU org.eclipse.wst.jsdt.feature.feature.group
    eclipse -application org.eclipse.equinox.p2.director -repository http://download.eclipse.org/releases/juno/ -installIU org.eclipse.php.sdk.feature.group
    eclipse -application org.eclipse.equinox.p2.director -repository http://download.eclipse.org/releases/juno/ -installIU org.eclipse.rap.tooling.feature.group
    eclipse -application org.eclipse.equinox.p2.director -repository http://download.eclipse.org/releases/juno/ -installIU org.eclipse.linuxtools.cdt.libhover.devhelp.feature.feature.group
    eclipse -application org.eclipse.equinox.p2.director -repository http://download.eclipse.org/releases/juno/ -installIU org.eclipse.linuxtools.valgrind.feature.group
    eclipse -application org.eclipse.equinox.p2.director -repository http://download.eclipse.org/releases/juno/ -installIU org.eclipse.egit.feature.group


#Subclipse

    eclipse -application org.eclipse.equinox.p2.director -repository http://subclipse.tigris.org/update_1.10.x -installIU org.tigris.subversion.subclipse.feature.group
    eclipse -application org.eclipse.equinox.p2.director -repository http://subclipse.tigris.org/update_1.10.x -installIU SVNKit

#PyDev
eclipse -application org.eclipse.equinox.p2.director -repository http://pydev.org/updates -installIU org.python.pydev.feature.feature.group
eclipse -application org.eclipse.equinox.p2.director -repository http://pydev.org/updates -installIU org.python.pydev.mylyn.feature.feature.group 

Best of luck.

References:

1. http://help.eclipse.org/indigo/index.jsp?topic=%2Forg.eclipse.platform.doc.isv%2Freference%2Fmisc%2Fupdate_standalone.html