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Equinox Launcher Issues
This page outlines the current situation with the equinox launcher.
JNI Launching
linux.ppc, linux.x86_64 and aix.ppc experience crashes with older vms, and therefore currently default to running java as a separate process. The following table outlines these platforms and their JNI launching status with different vms. (bug 168281, bug 168278, and bug 168271).
| Platform | Reference VM | Other tested VMs |
| gtk.linux.ppc | IBM-1.4.2sr7 - works | IBM 1.5.0 jcldp32dev-20070105 works IBM 1.5.0 pxp32devifx-20060124 crashes |
| gtk.linux.x86_64 | Sun 5.0 Update 11 - not tested | IBM 1.4.2 j9xa64142-20061124 works Sun 1.5.0_09-b02 server crashes IBM 1.4.2 j9xa64142-20060120 crashes |
| motif.aix.ppc | IBM-1.5.0sr4 - fails "A file or directory in the path name does not exist." |
Windows Console
The eclipse.exe is linked on windows as a GUI application, which means the OS does not automatically allocate a console for it. This causes us several console related problems. See bug 168726, bug 167310, and bug 173962. Exact behaviour depends on the specific vm.
By linking the eclipse executable as a console application, all the console problems are solved. We are now linking a new "eclipsec.exe" executable.
- This executable is not branded with an icon
- This executable is not included as a rootfile by org.eclipse.equinox.executable, which means it will not be included by default in exported RCP applications. (However the executable is included in the feature so can be explicitly included if the user desires.)
| VM | Java IO to console | Native IO to console | Ctrl+Break in console | redirectable IO (eclipse -debug > debug.txt) |
| IBM 1.4.2 cn142ifx-20060209 | No | Yes | crash | Yes |
| IBM 1.5.0 pwidevifx-20060124 | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Sun 1.4.2_12 | No | Yes | No* | No - Ctrl+Break stack trace does redirect |
| Sun 1.5.0_07 | Yes | Yes | No* | No - Ctrl+Break stack trace does redirect |
| Sun 1.6.0-b105 | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
Swing Applications on MacOSX
Mac is the only platform that always runs the vm in-process. The launcher by always created the vm on the main thread. This was a problem for Swing. See bug 181698. An argument "--launcher.secondThread" was added for the Mac to enable Swing applications. SWT will not work with this argument specified.
Should we also support the old mode of forking the vm on the mac?