Eclipse, Subversion and Mac OSX

Late last month (June) Eclipse released Ganymede (3.4).  Typically upgrading to the latest release of Eclipse is a no brainer for me, since typically I'm already running the latest beta version, but surprisingly, not this time. I guess I just had too many other things to do that I just never got to it. So when I read the release post on the Eclipse site, I simply downloaded and installed without thought or question... bad idea... well at least on my Mac, I haven't upgraded my Linux system yet.

My typical install process of Eclipse is pretty straight forward: download, replace and install plugins.

1. download: I typically select 'IDE for Java developers' and this time was no different
2. replace: this is really a two step process, 1. archive current installation, 2. unzip latest version
3. install plugins: since I write programs in a number of languages I need IDE feature addons for all of them, plus there are a number of plugins I like that make my life easier.
   the shortlist:
• CDT: IDE for C/C++ coding, yes I could download the CDT version of Eclipse, but last time I did that, I found that it didn't include the Java IDE and I find it easier to add on the CDT then the other way around.
• Photran: IDE for Fortran coding (yes I often write/fix code written in Fortran), this too can be downloaded as a separate IDE but last I checked it had the same issue with Java as the CDT download.
• Pydev: IDE for Python
• Texlipse: an 'IDE' for editing and writing TeX documents.
• Afae: a generic editor enhancement that adds color syntax for many different 'languages', this comes in handy with Unix shell script editing. (also recently the developer/s added an update site to make it easier to install)
• Subclipse: SVN client add-on for Eclipse

Well there you have my basic list. And yes I use them all on a weekly basis. The availability of such plugins/add-ons is why I use Eclipse and endorse it and recommend it, plus the fact that it is available on almost every platform that has Java and works the same on all those platforms, why would you want to use another... but praising Eclipse is not what this post is about...

So as you are probably starting to guess based on the post title, Subversion on MacOSX is where my issues began. Basically without even thinking, I upgraded Eclipse... but at the same time I upgraded subversion via macports... the combined two updates is where things went nuts. The timing was actually completely coincidental, after the last Mac OS X software update, a number of packages on my macports list needed to be updated including subversion.

Well I can't answer for Windows or Linux (since I haven't tried it yet, but I've had a number of other issues with subversion 1.5 on a Centos box I manage, but that will be another post once I figure out how to fix it), but on Mac the latest version of subversion does not work with the latest version of Subclipse on Eclipse 3.4, well maybe it does, but it doesn't for me. At the same time Eclipse has selected the Subversive group to provide the built-in svn team support for Eclipse. Why they selected Subversive over Subclipse, which is developed by the same group that is behind subversion, is beyond me, but in reality the question should be "why did Subclipse retract thier proposal to provide subversion support in Eclipse". So again, here is where my troubles began... when I noticed that Subclipse didn't work I first tried Subversive... that didn't work. That was also when I realized that it may be because of my upgraded of Subversion not Eclipse/Subclipse so then I started to work on it from that angle.

So first I re-installed Subclipse, then I uninstall subversion and install via the binary at Tigris, only to then read reports of issues on mac, plus it didn't fix any of my problems, so I then uninstalled that package and went back to the macports version, of course this meant that I hadn't fixed anything. Then at the same time (as eluded to above) I started noticing issues with svn on one of my linux boxs which lead me to think based on research on that end that it was not an svn issue, but a client access issue. This is the point at which I learn that I needed something call subversion-javahlbinding. Well I quickly installed it via macports... no help.... then I tried installing the package available on the Subclipse update site... that went really bad... Eclipse would crash about 10 seconds after startup. So I had to start over with my 'replace' cycle and install all my other IDE plugins again. This time I made an additional backup of Eclipse with everything minus subversion support.

Anyways, well since Subclipse wasn't working with the JavaHL, I tried the SVNKit which I read about... that too didn't work, so again I decided to go with Subversive. Again I tried to install subversive... and again it didn't work. Then I read that only the UI was included in the Eclipse Ganymede update site and not the connectors. So I installed the connectors from to Polarion site and low and behold, SVN support was working, kind of. I could at least browse my svn repositories it just wasn't working with my projects. Regardless when I noticed svn was working, my mind was made up, I was going to use subversive... what I didn't realize is that it takes some work to migrate to subversive from subclipse, and I only realized this after I hosed the local copy of one of my projects... thankfully I had a backup of the latest version on another machine I was testing on. This is when I read the 'proper' way to move from subclipse to subversive... basically after some digging through the forums site for subversive I found that a number of users had similar issues, this makes sense since for many years now, subclipse was the only option for subversion access in Eclipse.

So basically here are the steps I had to use:

1. install Subclipse, plugin only, not all the extra subversion packages it 'recommends' or chances are Eclipse will crash after startup.
2. restart Eclpise
3. 'Disconnect' all projects using Subclipse
4. restart Eclipse
5. uninstall Subclipse
6. restart Eclipse
7. install Subversive including svn connectors not available in the Eclipse repository that are available on the Polarion update site 
8. restart Eclipse
9. one by one, 'Share Projects' for each project that was previously shared via Subclipse and select 'use existing information'
10. cheer since you should hopefully be done and all should now work using Subversive, well at least as far as I can tell, it works on my end.

So basically that is it... that is my rant and my solution for using Subversion(1.5) on Eclipse (Ganymede) on Mac OSX(10.5.x). Note this is not an 'endorsement' of Subversive over Subclipse, but in my mind since Eclipse has already done that, we might as well join them. As for my 'solution' I'm sure there are other ways, but this one worked for me....