# Using git with Eclipse

8 messages from 2007-12-10 to 2007-12-13. Participants: Wink Saville, Shawn O. Pearce, Jing Xue, Robin Rosenberg.
Thread: https://gitlist.dev/t/11233

## Wink Saville, 2007-12-10 22:42

Subject: Using git with Eclipse
Message-ID: <475DC0CE.9070109@saville.com>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/475DC0CE.9070109%40saville.com

```
Hello,

I'm trying to use git on an Eclipse workspace and the .metadata 
directory is chock full of files and was wondering what, if anything, 
should be ignored. At the moment .history looks like a candidate for 
ignoring there are probably others.

Wink Saville

```

## Shawn O. Pearce, 2007-12-11 02:44

Subject: Re: Using git with Eclipse
Message-ID: <20071211024442.GJ14735@spearce.org>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/20071211024442.GJ14735%40spearce.org
In-Reply-To: <475DC0CE.9070109@saville.com>

```
Wink Saville <wink@saville.com> wrote:
> I'm trying to use git on an Eclipse workspace and the .metadata 
> directory is chock full of files and was wondering what, if anything, 
> should be ignored. At the moment .history looks like a candidate for 
> ignoring there are probably others.

Ignore all of .metadata; its Eclipse private state that you don't
want to version.  I'd add it to .git/info/exclude so its ignored only
in the repository that is using Eclipse, rather than in .gitignore
(which is published).

-- 
Shawn.

```

## Wink Saville, 2007-12-11 05:55

Subject: Re: Using git with Eclipse
Message-ID: <475E265D.5090106@saville.com>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/475E265D.5090106%40saville.com
In-Reply-To: <20071211024442.GJ14735@spearce.org>

```
Shawn O. Pearce wrote:
> Wink Saville <wink@saville.com> wrote:
>   
>> I'm trying to use git on an Eclipse workspace and the .metadata 
>> directory is chock full of files and was wondering what, if anything, 
>> should be ignored. At the moment .history looks like a candidate for 
>> ignoring there are probably others.
>>     
>
> Ignore all of .metadata; its Eclipse private state that you don't
> want to version.  I'd add it to .git/info/exclude so its ignored only
> in the repository that is using Eclipse, rather than in .gitignore
> (which is published).
>
>   
Shawn,

I added .metadata to exclude then used git rm to remove
.metadata from the repository. I then cloned that
repository to see how Eclipse would work. (As part of  my
workflow I use git as a backup so I wanted to see what would
happen when I "restored".)

As I'm sure you know with the metadata gone my existing projects
in the Ui were gone and they have to be recreated as well as
some Eclipse and plugin specific configuration.
I understand you and others are working on an Eclipse plugin
for git, will it also ignore . metadata?

Do you need any testing done or is it too early? I'd be glad to
test if you feel its solid enough that I won't lose data or if it
uses a separate different repo then I could use both.

Regards,

Wink Saville

```

## Jing Xue, 2007-12-11 15:14

Subject: Re: Using git with Eclipse
Message-ID: <20071211101449.uqnyht2e8kcc00ww@intranet.digizenstudio.com>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/20071211101449.uqnyht2e8kcc00ww%40intranet.digizenstudio.com
In-Reply-To: <475E265D.5090106@saville.com>

```

Quoting Wink Saville <wink@saville.com>:

> Shawn,
> I added .metadata to exclude then used git rm to remove
> .metadata from the repository. I then cloned that
> repository to see how Eclipse would work. (As part of  my
> workflow I use git as a backup so I wanted to see what would
> happen when I "restored".)

One way to deal with this might be (after excluding it from the  
workspace repository) creating a sub-repository under .metadata, and  
use that one for your local backup.

> As I'm sure you know with the metadata gone my existing projects
> in the Ui were gone and they have to be recreated as well as
> some Eclipse and plugin specific configuration.
> I understand you and others are working on an Eclipse plugin
> for git, will it also ignore . metadata?
>
> Do you need any testing done or is it too early? I'd be glad to
> test if you feel its solid enough that I won't lose data or if it
> uses a separate different repo then I could use both.

Egit is an Eclipse plugin, so you can always test it in an isolated  
"sandbox" workspace.

Cheers.
-- 
Jing Xue

```

## Robin Rosenberg, 2007-12-12 00:29

Subject: Re: Using git with Eclipse
Message-ID: <200712120129.43878.robin.rosenberg.lists@dewire.com>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/200712120129.43878.robin.rosenberg.lists%40dewire.com
In-Reply-To: <475E265D.5090106@saville.com>

```
tisdag 11 december 2007 skrev Wink Saville:
> Shawn O. Pearce wrote:
> > Wink Saville <wink@saville.com> wrote:
> >   
> >> I'm trying to use git on an Eclipse workspace and the .metadata 
> >> directory is chock full of files and was wondering what, if anything, 
> >> should be ignored. At the moment .history looks like a candidate for 
> >> ignoring there are probably others.
> >>     
> >
> > Ignore all of .metadata; its Eclipse private state that you don't
> > want to version.  I'd add it to .git/info/exclude so its ignored only
> > in the repository that is using Eclipse, rather than in .gitignore
> > (which is published).
> >
> >   
> Shawn,
> 
> I added .metadata to exclude then used git rm to remove
> .metadata from the repository. I then cloned that
> repository to see how Eclipse would work. (As part of  my
> workflow I use git as a backup so I wanted to see what would
> happen when I "restored".)
> 
> As I'm sure you know with the metadata gone my existing projects
> in the Ui were gone and they have to be recreated as well as
> some Eclipse and plugin specific configuration.
> I understand you and others are working on an Eclipse plugin
> for git, will it also ignore . metadata?

I don't put my projects into the workspace directory so I don't have
that problem. I think mixing projects and workspaces is a bad idea
(from experience, especially when testing different Eclipse versions
on the same projects.

As for settings you can configure project specific settings,
rather than workspace settings for most interesting settings. You can
also export/import settings. Getting projects into a new workspace
is best done using import. Point import to a directory  and it will scan
for all projects and let you import them all in one go.

Egit doesn't ignore .metadata by default, I think. Probably should. For now
you can tell egit to ignore it via the workspace settings, which egit honors.
Eventually it will honor .git/info/exclude etc, but currently it doesn't.

> 
> Do you need any testing done or is it too early? I'd be glad to
> test if you feel its solid enough that I won't lose data or if it
> uses a separate different repo then I could use both.

Sure testing is needed. It's solid enough to be usable, but probably not
bug free and isn't feature complete. So if we can root out some bugs and not 
just introduce new buggy features that helps. Not that development is very 
fast nowadays, but having real users spurs development and hopefully gets 
more contributors.

The likelyhood of loosing data is probably very low as few operations are
dangerous. Of course, there is no warranty etc. etc. and we haven't done
very much monkey testing (unless using the plugin on windows counts).

I use egit and git on the same work dir in parallel, sometimes using egit, 
sometimes git-gui and sometimes plain git depending on which does the
work better.

-- robin

```

## Wink Saville, 2007-12-12 06:07

Subject: Re: Using git with Eclipse
Message-ID: <475F7A94.4000209@saville.com>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/475F7A94.4000209%40saville.com
In-Reply-To: <200712120129.43878.robin.rosenberg.lists@dewire.com>

```
Robin Rosenberg wrote:
> tisdag 11 december 2007 skrev Wink Saville:
>   
> <snip>
> -- robin
>   

I case I'll take the bait and a guinea pig:)
Please send me a link to what you'd like me to test.

Thanks,

Wink

```

## Robin Rosenberg, 2007-12-13 21:23

Subject: Re: Using git with Eclipse
Message-ID: <200712132223.31109.robin.rosenberg.lists@dewire.com>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/200712132223.31109.robin.rosenberg.lists%40dewire.com
In-Reply-To: <475F7A94.4000209@saville.com>

```
onsdag 12 december 2007 skrev Wink Saville:
> Robin Rosenberg wrote:
> > tisdag 11 december 2007 skrev Wink Saville:
> >   
> > <snip>
> > -- robin
> >   
> 
> I case I'll take the bait and a guinea pig:)
> Please send me a link to what you'd like me to test.

Great! Please start with http://repo.or.cz/w/egit.git and test the INSTALL
instructions first. We do not provide an updatesite or prebuilt plugins yet.

-- robin

```

## Wink Saville, 2007-12-13 22:41

Subject: Re: Using git with Eclipse
Message-ID: <4761B515.5070805@saville.com>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/4761B515.5070805%40saville.com
In-Reply-To: <200712132223.31109.robin.rosenberg.lists@dewire.com>

```
Robin Rosenberg wrote:
> onsdag 12 december 2007 skrev Wink Saville:
>   
>> Robin Rosenberg wrote:
>>     
>>> tisdag 11 december 2007 skrev Wink Saville:
>>>   
>>> <snip>
>>> -- robin
>>>   
>>>       
>> I case I'll take the bait and a guinea pig:)
>> Please send me a link to what you'd like me to test.
>>     
>
> Great! Please start with http://repo.or.cz/w/egit.git and test the INSTALL
> instructions first. We do not provide an updatesite or prebuilt plugins yet.
>
> -- robin
>
>   
Robin, I'm having a little trouble following the install instructions
due to my inexperience with Eclipse. Anyway see my "[egit] How-to use egit".
I might have it installed correctly now, but not sure how to use,
I just made a reply to Jing with some details.

Cheers,

Wink

```
