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I'm new to Linux and have just been given a VM of Oracle Linux to work with. I need to install Eclipse on it and, after a bit of research, discovered that this could most easily be done with the following command in the Terminal:

sudo yum install eclipse

However, I noticed that this installed Eclipse 3.6.1 (Helios), rather than the more recent Eclipse 4.3.2 (Kepler). I realize that I can just go to the Eclipse website and download the most recent installation, but I'd like to know how to do this from the command line (as an educational experience, plus if I have to do this again I'd like a quick and simple way to do it). How can I install the most recent version, or any particular version, of Eclipse via the Terminal?

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  • How did you "realize" this? By checking the version after installation or by checking the version number in yum? The version numbers of the different packages listed through yum might be misleading, e.g. when I look at the eclipse-platform package, it shows version 4.3 – ILMostro_7 Jun 19 '14 at 21:30
  • @ILMostro_7 when I open up Eclipse, the splashscreen says "Eclipse Helios" and the "About Eclipse" version says version 3.6.1 – Thunderforge Jun 19 '14 at 21:31
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Distro repositories don't necessarily contain the latest version of something -- that depends on the distro policy.

Your best bet in this case, since it is drop dead simple, is to just install an Eclipse from the website. Doing this means you have to resolve any prerequisites yourself, but again it is pretty simple in this case: you just need a JRE (or, presuming you are using this for java programming, a JDK).

Beware that installing eclipse this way doesn't put the executable in $PATH, but it's inside the top level of the archive download. Unpack that where ever you want -- e.g., /opt/eclipse and:

ln -s /opt/eclipse/eclipse /usr/local/bin/eclipse

It can figure out where it actually is this way and use whatever other resources it needs from the archive. You could use $HOME/bin as the second path if you prefer there (presuming that's in $PATH). Don't use a path normally used by the distro installer, such as /bin or /usr/bin.

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    I wrote in the original question that I am aware that I can just go to the website and download it, but I would like to know how to do it from the command line to begin with (an educational experience, I guess). Besides, it looks like downloading it manually requires a trip to the Terminal anyway to change $PATH, so I might as well install it from the Terminal. Can this be done? You mentioned the distro policy being the bottleneck; can that be updated? – Thunderforge Jun 19 '14 at 21:35
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    The reason I gave you this answer is that if the distro repo doesn't have what you want, doing it purely from the command line would be pretty much exactly the same as above, except instead of using a browser you'd do the download with a tool such as wget (or as per IlMostro's answer, git). WRT updating the distro policy, no, the policy is set purposefully and for whatever reason, but some distros have alternative repos you can use (dunno about oracle) if you configure them in. You can also check to see if there's a newer version that's not the default with yum search eclipse. – goldilocks Jun 19 '14 at 21:41
  • AFAIK, with Fedora22, the integration of copr -- user-provided pkgs/repos ala AUR on arch--is much easier to implement. Perhaps I could add it to my answer when I get some more time. – ILMostro_7 Jun 19 '15 at 14:47
  • @ILMostro_7 I'm not familar with copr (just glanced at the project page), but I still don't see how it can get any easier than just download, unzip, add to path. E.g., setting up a repo may mean you can then install in one command, but configuring the repo in the first place seems like more work, more complexity, and perhaps later provides more opportunity for problems, errors, maintenance etc. Certainly adding more repos for yum to check all the time, or potentially get confused by at some/any point, is completely pointless if there is only one thing in the repo. – goldilocks Jun 19 '15 at 15:02
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Take a look at this wiki on the eclipse website, regarding the use of git to clone packages to your local system. For example, execute the following to clone the C-Development-Toolkit:

git clone git://git.eclipse.org/gitroot/cdt/org.eclipse.cdt.git

You could also try to find a way to get it with wget; regardless, keep in mind that you should have a working java development toolkit.

Furthermore, you could create a eclipse.repo file in /etc/yum.repos.d/ as per this example with the EclipseSCADA project. For a general Eclipse environment, maybe try to include the following in that file:

[Eclipse]
name=Eclipse Kepler repo
baseurl=http://download.eclipse.org/releases/kepler/yum/
gpgcheck=0

In Fedora22, dnf provides an option for copr, Fedora's third-party repository system, which makes it much easier for users to install packages not available in the distribution repos.

    $ dnf copr
    Mini usage:

copr 
  enable name/project [chroot]
  disable name/project
  list name
  search project

  Examples:
  copr enable rhscl/perl516 epel-6-x86_64
  copr enable ignatenkobrain/ocltoys
  copr disable rhscl/perl516
  copr list ignatenkobrain
  copr search tests

Then, to search for eclipse, do:

dnf copr search eclipse
...
mbooth/eclipse-luna : This repository provides Eclipse Luna (4.4) for Fedora 20.
                : 
                : Fedora 20 ships with Eclipse Kepler (4.3) so this repository provides builds of Eclipse Luna for those who want the very latest Eclipse on a stable Fedora release.
                : 
                : If you have problems, please contact me directly via email (mbooth@fedoraproject.org) or IRC (mbooth on Freenode channels #fedora-devel #fedora-java and #fedora-uk)

Finally, as per the example, enable the name/project and install

dnf copr enable mbooth/eclipse-luna

Notice At the time of writing this, the repo is set-up for fedora20 and fedora21; so, the user might have to make some changes to the baseurl in /etc/yum.repos.d/_copr_... file until the maintainer sorts it out.

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