Eclipse: How do i refresh an entire workspace? F5 doesn't do it
Question
I have a workspace with a bunch of java projects. If I go to File->Refresh
, it doesn't really refresh anything (perhaps the currently selected project). How do I get eclipse to refresh all of the projects?
Solution
It will indeed only refresh the current project (or, more specifically, the current selection in the project explorer). I just click somewhere in the project explorer, do Ctrl+A to select all projects and then press F5 to achieve a complete refresh.
OTHER TIPS
If you want to refresh all Projects, ignoring closed projects, then the easiest way is to:
- ctrl-click and item in the Project Explorer (to ensure the P. Explorer has focus)
- ctrl-click the item again so that it's no longer highlighted (but the P. Explorer still has focus)
- F5 will now Refresh the entire workspace
Effectively F5 refreshes the Workspace when a navigation view has focus and nothing is selected.
Ctrl-A, then F5.
You can set up the workspace to automatically refresh when it detects changes in the preferences. (Window > Preferences > General > Workspace > Refresh Automatically)
Easy.
- Create an external tool: Run > External Tools > External Tools Configuration...
- Create a new Program configuration Point the location to an exe that is very fast (I use Cygwin's 'ls')
- On the Refresh tab, choose Refresh Resources upon completion, The Entire Workspace
- On the Build tab, deselect Build before launch
Run the tool to refresh all projects.
Control click all your projects together, then right click and hit refresh.
Usually I refresh all like that, then i make sure to clean all projects and rebuild in eclipse.
For anyone curious how to select all of those projects on OS X where Ctrl+A doesn't work:
- Click the first project
- Hold down Shift
- Hold the ↓ key until they are all selected
- Now press F5
This answer led me to an even simpler solution, no configuration necessary.
Cmd-3 build all (control-3 on windows)
Edit: Correction -- I need to both refresh and build. Build does not automatically refresh. I'm currently using two actions, "echo" from my comment in the linked answer I just referred to (an External Tool configuration with a hook to refresh all), followed by cmd-3 "build all"