Bug 5933

Comment 1 John Arthorne 2001-11-14 16:30:31 EST

The installation instructions in the readme file states that you should specify 
the workspace directory using the -data argument in such an environment.  For 
example:

./eclipse -data ~/my_workspace

Workspace content and meta-data will then go under ~/my_workspace

Comment 2 Johan Walles 2001-11-15 02:57:52 EST

In that case I would appreciate if you could:

a) Preferrably change the default behaviour to put the data files in the user's
home directory like most (all?) other Unix applications.

b) If a) is not possible for some reason, come up with a better error message
(suggesting the -data switch) instead of the below exception.
Documenting non-standard behaviour is an OK stop-gap solution, but it is
*definitely not* a permanent solution to this problem as you seem to suggest.

Comment 3 John Arthorne 2002-03-20 15:28:03 EST

Fixed.  The error message now says,

"The platform metadata area could not be written: {0}.  By default the platform 
writes its content under the current working directory when the platform is 
launched.  Use the -data parameter to specify a different content area for the 
platform."

Comment 4 Corey Puffalt 2002-10-15 12:53:58 EDT

This bug does not appear to be fixed for me with eclipse-gtk 2.0.1 on redhat 8
w/ jdk1.4.1.  I do not get the error message noted in the previous note.  Here's
the (uninformative) stacktrace I get:

eclipse
An exception occurred while writing to the platform log:
java.io.FileNotFoundException: /usr/local/eclipse-2.0.1/workspace/.metadata/.log
(No such file or directory)
        at java.io.FileOutputStream.openAppend(Native Method)
        at java.io.FileOutputStream.<init>(FileOutputStream.java:174)
        at java.io.FileOutputStream.<init>(FileOutputStream.java:102)
        at org.eclipse.core.launcher.Main.openLogFile(Main.java:1356)
        at org.eclipse.core.launcher.Main.log(Main.java:1217)
        at org.eclipse.core.launcher.Main.main(Main.java:543)
Logging to the console instead.
!ENTRY org.eclipse.core.launcher 4 0 Oct 15, 2002 10:56:29.877
!MESSAGE Exception launching the Eclipse Platform:
An exception occurred while writing to the platform log:
java.io.FileNotFoundException: /usr/local/eclipse-2.0.1/workspace/.metadata/.log
(No such file or directory)
        at java.io.FileOutputStream.openAppend(Native Method)
        at java.io.FileOutputStream.<init>(FileOutputStream.java:174)
        at java.io.FileOutputStream.<init>(FileOutputStream.java:102)
        at org.eclipse.core.launcher.Main.openLogFile(Main.java:1356)
        at org.eclipse.core.launcher.Main.log(Main.java:1217)
        at org.eclipse.core.launcher.Main.main(Main.java:544)
Logging to the console instead.
!STACK
java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException
        at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
        at
sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39)
        at
sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
        at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:324)
        at org.eclipse.core.launcher.Main.basicRun(Main.java:247)
        at org.eclipse.core.launcher.Main.run(Main.java:703)
        at org.eclipse.core.launcher.Main.main(Main.java:539)
Caused by: java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException
        at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
        at
sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39)
        at
sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
        at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:324)
        at
org.eclipse.core.internal.boot.InternalBootLoader.startup(InternalBootLoader.java:909)
        at
org.eclipse.core.internal.boot.InternalBootLoader.run(InternalBootLoader.java:768)
        at org.eclipse.core.boot.BootLoader.run(BootLoader.java:462)
        ... 7 more
Caused by: org.eclipse.core.runtime.CoreException: The platform metadata area
could not be written: /usr/local/eclipse-2.0.1/workspace/.metadata.  By default
the platform writes its content
under the current working directory when the platform is launched.  Use the
-data parameter to
specify a different content area for the platform.
        at
org.eclipse.core.internal.runtime.PlatformMetaArea.createLocation(PlatformMetaArea.java:72)
        at
org.eclipse.core.internal.runtime.InternalPlatform.setupMetaArea(InternalPlatform.java:886)
        at
org.eclipse.core.internal.runtime.InternalPlatform.loaderStartup(InternalPlatform.java:557)
        ... 14 more

Comment 5 Corey Puffalt 2002-10-15 12:55:50 EDT

Oops...blonde moment.  The message *is* hidden in the stacktrace. Could it be
made more prominent instead of being hidden in the stacktrace?

Comment 6 Johan Walles 2002-11-21 09:49:20 EST

Reopening because of Corey's problems.  Eclipse shouldn't crash upon launch in a
multi-user install (even if there's a helpful message hidden inside the stack
traces).

Comment 7 Jeffrey Yasskin 2003-01-05 01:49:16 EST

This bug still exists in 2.0.2. Worse, if it is encountered in an X-session
whose current directory isn't writable, the error dialog says: 
"Problems during startup. Check the ".log" file in the ".metadata" directory of
your workspace."
This file, of course, doesn't exist.

Why does it default to the current directory rather than the user's home directory?

Comment 8 a korsman 2003-01-30 18:21:19 EST

For what it's worth this is a REALLY high impact bug. We recently deployed into 
a multi-user, multi-machine environment (~20 people) and everyone bumps into 
this the first time they start up.  ...  AK

Comment 9 DJ Houghton 2003-03-27 10:49:17 EST

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 33976 ***