This is a problem I just ran into, and the eclipse plugin solution seems super cumbersome to me. I found a simpler solution using javax.tools.JavaCompiler to invoke the compilation process. Using the code below, you can just Right-Click > Debug As > JUnit Test in eclipse and debug you annotation processor directly from there
@Test
public void runAnnoationProcessor() throws Exception {
String source = "my.project/src";
Iterable<JavaFileObject> files = getSourceFiles(source);
JavaCompiler compiler = ToolProvider.getSystemJavaCompiler();
CompilationTask task = compiler.getTask(new PrintWriter(System.out), null, null, null, null, files);
task.setProcessors(Arrays.asList(new MyAnnotationProcessorClass()));
task.call();
}
private Iterable<JavaFileObject> getSourceFiles(String p_path) throws Exception {
JavaCompiler compiler = ToolProvider.getSystemJavaCompiler();
StandardJavaFileManager files = compiler.getStandardFileManager(null, null, null);
files.setLocation(StandardLocation.SOURCE_PATH, Arrays.asList(new File(p_path)));
Set<Kind> fileKinds = Collections.singleton(Kind.SOURCE);
return files.list(StandardLocation.SOURCE_PATH, "", fileKinds, true);
}