Question

Question: where does Eclipse store the list of files it opens on startup?

Background: Having installed a plugin into Eclipse which promptly crashed, my Eclipse workspace is in a bit of a state. When started, the building workspace task pauses indefinitely at 20%. Before I uninstall the plugin I want to give it another chance. I have a feeling that the reason Eclipse is pausing is because of a file which was opened when it crashed, which it tries to reopen on startup. If I can stop this file from opening on startup there's a chance I may be able to coax the plugin to behave. The problem is I have no idea where that list of files is persisted between runs of Eclipse.

...a second before I posted this question, I realised I could just delete the file causing the problem (duh). However, the search has frustrated me enough to want to find the answer.

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Solution

In your workspace the following file contains your workbench information:

.metadata/.plugins/org.eclipse.ui.workbench/workbench.xml

It is possible to delete it (or edit it but that requires some fiddling around I suppose) without breaking your workspace, the file gets regenerated by Eclipse. When you delete it all workbench related settings are lost (ie all editors are closed), but your projects of that workspace stay intact.

Edit: in Eclipse 4.2 the file is

.metadata/.plugins/org.eclipse.e4.workbench/workbench.xmi
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