nixpkgs doc: add package notes for Eclipse

1 files changed, 126 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/doc/package-notes.xml b/doc/package-notes.xml
index ecaf619472de..266a80922160 100644
--- a/doc/package-notes.xml
+++ b/doc/package-notes.xml
@@ -219,5 +219,131 @@ you should modify
 </section>
 -->
 
+<!--============================================================-->
+
+<section xml:id="sec-eclipse">
+
+  <title>Eclipse</title>
+
+  <para>
+    The Nix expressions related to the Eclipse platform and IDE are in
+    <link xlink:href="https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/master/pkgs/applications/editors/eclipse"><filename>pkgs/applications/editors/eclipse</filename></link>.
+  </para>
+
+  <para>
+    Nixpkgs provides a number of packages that will install Eclipse in
+    its various forms, these range from the bare-bones Eclipse
+    Platform to the more fully featured Eclipse SDK or Scala-IDE
+    packages and multiple version are often available. It is possible
+    to list available Eclipse packages by issuing the command:
+
+<screen>
+$ nix-env -f '&lt;nixpkgs&gt;' -qaP -A eclipses --description
+</screen>
+
+    Once an Eclipse variant is installed it can be run using the
+    <command>eclipse</command> command, as expected. From within
+    Eclipse it is then possible to install plugins in the usual manner
+    by either manually specifying an Eclipse update site or by
+    installing the Marketplace Client plugin and using it to discover
+    and install other plugins. This installation method provides an
+    Eclipse installation that closely resemble a manually installed
+    Eclipse.
+  </para>
+
+  <para>
+    If you prefer to install plugins in a more declarative manner then
+    Nixpkgs also offer a number of Eclipse plugins that can be
+    installed in an <emphasis>Eclipse environment</emphasis>. This
+    type of environment is created using the function
+    <varname>eclipseWithPlugins</varname> found inside the
+    <varname>nixpkgs.eclipses</varname> attribute set. This function
+    takes as argument <literal>{ eclipse, plugins ? [], jvmArgs ? []
+    }</literal> where <varname>eclipse</varname> is a one of the
+    Eclipse packages described above, <varname>plugins</varname> is a
+    list of plugin derivations, and <varname>jvmArgs</varname> is a
+    list of arguments given to the JVM running the Eclipse. For
+    example, say you wish to install the latest Eclipse Platform with
+    the popular Eclipse Color Theme plugin and also allow Eclipse to
+    use more RAM. You could then add
+
+<screen>
+packageOverrides = pkgs: {
+  myEclipse = with pkgs.eclipses; eclipseWithPlugins {
+    eclipse = eclipse-platform;
+    jvmArgs = [ "-Xmx2048m" ];
+    plugins = [ plugins.color-theme ];
+  };
+}
+</screen>
+
+    to your Nixpkgs configuration
+    (<filename>~/.nixpkgs/config.nix</filename>) and install it by
+    running <command>nix-env -f '&lt;nixpkgs&gt;' -iA
+    myEclipse</command> and afterward run Eclipse as usual. It is
+    possible to find out which plugins are available for installation
+    using <varname>eclipseWithPlugins</varname> by running
+
+<screen>
+$ nix-env -f '&lt;nixpkgs&gt;' -qaP -A eclipses.plugins --description
+</screen>
+  </para>
+
+  <para>
+    If there is a need to install plugins that are not available in
+    Nixpkgs then it may be possible to define these plugins outside
+    Nixpkgs using the <varname>buildEclipseUpdateSite</varname> and
+    <varname>buildEclipsePlugin</varname> functions found in the
+    <varname>nixpkgs.eclipses.plugins</varname> attribute set. Use the
+    <varname>buildEclipseUpdateSite</varname> function to install a
+    plugin distributed as an Eclipse update site. This function takes
+    <literal>{ name, src }</literal> as argument where
+    <literal>src</literal> indicates the Eclipse update site archive.
+    All Eclipse features and plugins within the downloaded update site
+    will be installed. When an update site archive is not available
+    then the <varname>buildEclipsePlugin</varname> function can be
+    used to install a plugin that consists of a pair of feature and
+    plugin JARs. This function takes an argument <literal>{ name,
+    srcFeature, srcPlugin }</literal> where
+    <literal>srcFeature</literal> and <literal>srcPlugin</literal> are
+    the feature and plugin JARs, respectively.
+  </para>
+
+  <para>
+    Expanding the previous example with two plugins using the above
+    functions we have
+<screen>
+packageOverrides = pkgs: {
+  myEclipse = with pkgs.eclipses; eclipseWithPlugins {
+    eclipse = eclipse-platform;
+    jvmArgs = [ "-Xmx2048m" ];
+    plugins = [
+      plugins.color-theme
+      (plugins.buildEclipsePlugin {
+        name = "myplugin1-1.0";
+        srcFeature = fetchurl {
+          url = "http://…/features/myplugin1.jar";
+          sha256 = "123…";
+        };
+        srcPlugin = fetchurl {
+          url = "http://…/plugins/myplugin1.jar";
+          sha256 = "123…";
+        };
+      });
+      (plugins.buildEclipseUpdateSite {
+        name = "myplugin2-1.0";
+        src = fetchurl {
+          stripRoot = false;
+          url = "http://…/myplugin2.zip";
+          sha256 = "123…";
+        };
+      });
+    ];
+  };
+}
+</screen>
+  </para>
+
+</section>
 
 </chapter>