Attach/Detach to a remote instance of Eclipse

Question

When using Eclipse over X-Windows on a remote shell (X port forwarding), is there a way to simply detach my X connection and come back to the process later. For a little more clarity, I'm on a Windows machine and have to reboot. I'd like to keep Eclipse running and come back where I left off. Eclipse is running on my Windows machine through an X-Server connected to a Linux box.

I'm thinking something like tmux could do the trick. However, I do a Ctrl-Z to stop Eclipse and it won't close the Eclipse Window. If I restart the X-Server in Windows, Eclipse fails when I try fg 1. Any other options?

Answer 1

I have zero experience with it, but xpra sounds like exactly what you're looking for.

Answer 2

Xpra did everything that I needed, but it was not clear exactly how it worked. I was able to get it working by opening two PuTTY sessions in windows, one server and one client. Also, the Google Code is out-dated. Instead, install from http://xpra.devloop.org.uk/dists/xpra-0.0.7.9.tar.bz2. I'm not sure how it's different, but it worked for me. The README tells how to build the package. It is necessary to apt-get a bunch of other stuff. But, here are the missing pieces on how to get it work as I describe above:

Setup server:

cd ~/download/xpra/xpra-0.0.7.9
export PYTHONPATH=$PWD/install/lib/python:$PYTHONPATH
./install/bin/xpra start :10
export DISPLAY=:10
xterm&

Setup client:

cd ~/download/xpra/xpra-0.0.7.9
export PYTHONPATH=$PWD/install/lib/python:$PYTHONPATH
./install/bin/xpra attach :10

Notes:

• The Windows xpra installer is not needed for this configuration. I don't know what it's supposed to do.
• Be sure to run Xming on Windows.
• Be sure to enable X port forwarding on the client PuTTY window.
• Launch whatever you want from the xterm window. (ie Eclipse)
• You can close the server window once xterm is up.
• Hit ctrl-c in the client window to detach from the session.
• Do all the client commands again to re-attach..even after restarting PuTTY, the Xming, or Windows itself.

Answer 3

Which protocol is best suited for your needs depends on the bandwidth available, latency requirements and also on the type of client OS you use. Since you use MS Windows, Xpra built with native GTK/win32 toolkit should be quite fast, NX would use a local X server (which is slower, but you gain from the NX network optimizations...).

There is a more detailed comparison of these protocols which may help you choose.

The tool in the link above makes it easier to start and suspend sessions from remote computers, it is a GUI for Xpra, NX, VNC, etc so you don't need to remember where the sessions are or what port they are on. If you only ever use one session, always on one machine, always on the same port, this may be overkill for your needs.