Running the Eclipse Java formatter on the command line with eclipse 4.4

Question

I'm trying to run the eclipse java formatter on the command line using the code formatter docs but it's failing with an exception message of

<current working directory>/--launcher.library file does not exist.

Looking at the code formatter application code it seems like what is happening is that some of the eclipse arguments are being interpreted by the formatter's command line parser as relative file names, which don't exist.

I'm aware that some people used to be able to get this to work, but that was more than 5 years ago using an older version of eclipse, and I'm wondering if someone has been able to use the same feature with eclipse 4.4?

Update 1:

Here is the command line that I used:

/home/alexq/eclipse-luna-SR2-4.4.2/eclipse/eclipse -nosplash -consolelog -debug -application org.eclipse.jdt.core.JavaCodeFormatter -verbose -config /home/alexq/eclipse-user-files/formatter-config-for-scripts/MyCodingStandards.ini /home/alexq/eclipse-4.4.2-workspaces/MyWorkspace/MyProject/src/com/example/myproject/MyClassToBeFormatted.java

Here is the content of my eclipse.ini file:

-showlocation
-vm
/home/alexq/JavaSE8/jdk1.8/bin/java
-startup
plugins/org.eclipse.equinox.launcher_1.3.0.v20140415-2008.jar
--launcher.library
plugins/org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.gtk.linux.x86_64_1.1.200.v20150204-1316
-product
org.eclipse.epp.package.jee.product
--launcher.defaultAction
openFile
-showsplash
org.eclipse.platform
--launcher.XXMaxPermSize
256m
--launcher.defaultAction
openFile
--launcher.appendVmargs
-vmargs
-Dosgi.requiredJavaVersion=1.6
-XX:MaxPermSize=256m
-Xms40m
-Xmx512m
-Dorg.eclipse.swt.browser.XULRunnerPath=''

And here is the output from that command:

Start VM: /home/alexq/JavaSE8/jdk1.8/bin/java
-Dosgi.requiredJavaVersion=1.6
-XX:MaxPermSize=256m
-Xms40m
-Xmx512m
-Dorg.eclipse.swt.browser.XULRunnerPath=''
-jar /home/alexq/eclipse-luna-SR2-4.4.2/eclipse//plugins/org.eclipse.equinox.launcher_1.3.0.v20140415-2008.jar
-os linux
-ws gtk
-arch x86_64
-launcher /home/alexq/eclipse-luna-SR2-4.4.2/eclipse/eclipse
-name Eclipse
--launcher.library /home/alexq/eclipse-luna-SR2-4.4.2/eclipse//plugins/org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.gtk.linux.x86_64_1.1.200.v20150204-1316/eclipse_1607.so
-startup /home/alexq/eclipse-luna-SR2-4.4.2/eclipse//plugins/org.eclipse.equinox.launcher_1.3.0.v20140415-2008.jar
--launcher.appendVmargs
-exitdata 1008087
-showlocation
-product org.eclipse.epp.package.jee.product
-consolelog
-debug
-application org.eclipse.jdt.core.JavaCodeFormatter
-verbose
-config /home/alexq/eclipse-user-files/formatter-config-for-scripts/MyCodingStandards.ini
/home/alexq/eclipse-4.4.2-workspaces/MyWorkspace/MyProject/src/com/example/myproject/MyClass.java
-vm /home/alexq/JavaSE8/jdk1.8/bin/java
-vmargs
-Dosgi.requiredJavaVersion=1.6
-XX:MaxPermSize=256m
-Xms40m
-Xmx512m
-Dorg.eclipse.swt.browser.XULRunnerPath=''
-jar /home/alexq/eclipse-luna-SR2-4.4.2/eclipse//plugins/org.eclipse.equinox.launcher_1.3.0.v20140415-2008.jar 
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM warning: ignoring option MaxPermSize=256m; support was removed in 8.0
Install location:
    file:/home/alexq/eclipse-luna-SR2-4.4.2/eclipse/
Configuration file:
    file:/home/alexq/eclipse-luna-SR2-4.4.2/eclipse/configuration/config.ini loaded
Configuration location:
    file:/home/alexq/eclipse-luna-SR2-4.4.2/eclipse/configuration/
Framework located:
    file:/home/alexq/eclipse-luna-SR2-4.4.2/eclipse/plugins/org.eclipse.osgi_3.10.2.v20150203-1939.jar
Loading extension: reference:file:org.eclipse.osgi.compatibility.state_1.0.1.v20140709-1414.jar
        eclipse.properties not found
Framework classpath:
    file:/home/alexq/eclipse-luna-SR2-4.4.2/eclipse/plugins/org.eclipse.osgi_3.10.2.v20150203-1939.jar
    file:/home/alexq/eclipse-luna-SR2-4.4.2/eclipse/plugins/
    file:/home/alexq/eclipse-luna-SR2-4.4.2/eclipse/plugins/org.eclipse.osgi.compatibility.state_1.0.1.v20140709-1414.jar
Debug options:
    file:/home/alexq/eclipse-4.4.2-workspaces/MyWorkspace/MyProject/.options not found
Time to load bundles: 3
org.eclipse.m2e.logback.configuration: The org.eclipse.m2e.logback.configuration bundle was activated before the state location was initialized.  Will retry after the state location is initialized.
Starting application: 1459
org.eclipse.m2e.logback.configuration: Logback config file: /home/alexq/workspace/.metadata/.plugins/org.eclipse.m2e.logback.configuration/logback.1.5.1.20150109-1820.xml
org.eclipse.m2e.logback.configuration: Initializing logback
/home/alexq/eclipse-4.4.2-workspaces/MyWorkspace/MyProject/-showlocation does not exist. Please try specifying valid absolute path. 

Usage: eclipse -application org.eclipse.jdt.core.JavaCodeFormatter [ OPTIONS ] -config <configFile> <files>

   <files>   Java source files and/or directories to format.
             Only files ending with .java will be formatted in the given directory.
   -config <configFile> Use the formatting style from the specified properties file.
                        Refer to the help documentation to find out how to generate this file.

 OPTIONS:

   -help                Display this message.
   -quiet               Only print error messages.
   -verbose             Be verbose about the formatting job.

Answer 1

As a workaround I download eclipse 3.6 from here and tried running the same eclipse formatter command and it succeeded.