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javaeclipse-pluginosgiequinoxosgi-bundle

How to run some code as soon as Eclipse has started?

I'm developing an Eclipse plugin that needs to figure out the amount of time that it took for Eclipse to start.

I can get the amount of time since JVM startup in my plugin by using org.eclipse.ui.startup extension point and recording the time by using ManagementFactory.getRuntimeMXBean().getUptime() or eclipse.startTime system property.

However, during startup, Eclipse might ask the user for workspace location and this will be counted in the JVM startup time. As my plugin is trying to measure the non-user-interaction time, this makes the above approach rather useless (unless user has selected a default workspace location but there is no guarantee that this is the case).

Ideally, I would like to know the moment in time when user dismissed the "choose workspace" dialog (or, if user was using default workspace then equivalent moment). Or some other moment as close to that as possible.

I've done a bit of research and there does not seem to be any official extension point for such a thing.

I have a feeling that something like that might be possible with a custom OSGi bundle running at early enough start-level (2). However, I'm not sure if it will actually work:

  • maybe workspace selection dialog is shown from some Eclipse core plugin, started at start-level 4 like the rest of the plugins?
  • even if I manage to write such a bundle, do I need to modify Eclipse config.ini to list it there? Or how do I guarantee that it will be started at certain start-level (if it is not a real Eclipse plug-in but a custom bundle)? This article mentions p2.inf but my experiments with it have not been successful yet.

As I do not have much experience with OSGi and Eclipse plugin development, maybe I have missed something rather obvious and the solution is much simpler than what I envisioned?

UPDATE After a bit more research, I found an early extension point: StartupMonitor service (usually used to customize the splash screen or provide some other sort of startup progress monitor, see here for more details). That could be a possible candidate for my needs, now I just need to figure out, how to make Eclipse aware of it (I suspect I need to add it in config.ini).

Another option I'm considering is to implement a JVM agent and instrument Eclipse IDEApplication class, adding some code snippets that I need. And then add that JVM agent in JVM arguments in eclipse.ini. Could actually be the easiest.

Solution

  • I took the JVM agent approach. Luckily P2 has ability to perform some extra actions via touchpoints -- I can use that to add the JVM agent option automatically at plugin install time and remove it when plugin is uninstalled.

    Sample p2.inf file (goes inside META-INF):

    instructions.install = \
  addJvmArg(jvmArg:-javaagent:${artifact.location}/agent/my-agent.jar);
instructions.install.import = \
  org.eclipse.equinox.p2.touchpoint.eclipse.addJvmArg, \
  org.eclipse.equinox.p2.touchpoint.eclipse.removeJvmArg
instructions.uninstall = \
  removeJvmArg(jvmArg:-javaagent:${artifact.location}/agent/my-agent.jar);
instructions.uninstall.import = \
  org.eclipse.equinox.p2.touchpoint.eclipse.addJvmArg, \
  org.eclipse.equinox.p2.touchpoint.eclipse.removeJvmArg

    (above sample assumes that you have bundled your JVM agent inside the plugin, in agent subdirectory).