back-porting Use the actual system-packages from the JVM for Product/Site export #284 to 4.23

[gireeshpunathil]

Context: recently jetty bundles were upgraded in response to security findings. When this was backported to 4.23, launch / export operations (anything that involved PDE) started to fail with reason similar to: Unsatisfied import package java.io_0.0.0

steps to simulate the issue:

• create a simple plugin project - from a template.
• open the manifest, and add Import-Package: java.io to it
• save it and export it (as deployable plugins)

an error as shown below appears, and the export fails.

I have performed git bisect to determine that this commit will fix the issue.
I see Validation error when launching child eclipse and Fix system package launch validation from last year that have gone into 4.23, but Use the actual system-packages from the JVM for Product/Site export does not look like. Unfortunately, I am unable to back-port this, as I see the pde-build repos have moved, and I see only pre-built jars and classes for the source, and I don't understand how to meaningfully back-port this.

any suggestions are appreciated!

/cc @HannesWell @vik-chand

[laeubi]

The "Export Plugins" has always had different issues and it seems no one really maintains this., so I would recommend to use Tycho instead to build your bundles / plugins.

If you use a structured / pomless build its really easy to accomplish:
https://tycho.eclipseprojects.io/doc/master/StructuredBuild.html

[gireeshpunathil]

thanks @laeubi - is this supported by the IDE? I mean, are there UI driven wizards to perform tyco builds? or this has to be done manually in the command line?

[laeubi]

You can use m2eclipse or you can add a shortcut to the externals tools menu.

[HannesWell]

You can use m2eclipse or you can add a shortcut to the externals tools menu.

While I agree with Christoph that building Plugins, Features, Products, etc. is done best with Tycho+Maven, using Tycho also requires setting up a corresponding Maven+Tycho build (i.e. at least a root pom.xml). If you have done that you can use m2e as described by Christoph to run the build.

I have performed git bisect to determine that this commit will fix the issue.
I see Validation error when launching child eclipse and Fix system package launch validation from last year that have gone into 4.23, but Use the actual system-packages from the JVM for Product/Site export does not look like.

Yes those are probably the changes to address your problem.

Unfortunately, I am unable to back-port this, as I see the pde-build repos have moved, and I see only pre-built jars and classes for the source, and I don't understand how to meaningfully back-port this.

The pde.build repo still exists: https://github.com/eclipse-pde/eclipse.pde.build
As part of the merge only the master branch has been cleared, but the repo is still active (not archived) to allow maintanance back-ports like in your case.
There is already a R4_23_maintenance branch, so you can just create a PR against that branch with the commit from this repo.

But I don't know how the maintenance branches are build, does this happen on EF-infra (I have never seen that), do you build it by yourself internally at IBM?

[gireeshpunathil]

thanks @HannesWell - I will try the backport approach following your guidance.

But I don't know how the maintenance branches are build, does this happen on EF-infra (I have never seen that), do you build it by yourself internally at IBM?

Yes, we have infra to build and distribute versions internally - to meet custom LTS requirements from consumers. But we keep things only at the binary level, so there is no fork - the source is always this.

[HannesWell]

I think this is now completed -> Closing.