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?

Answer 1

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.

Answer 2

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.

Answer 3

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)

Answer 4

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.

Answer 5

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.

Answer 6

For anyone curious how to select all of those projects on OS X where Ctrl+A doesn't work:

1. Click the first project
2. Hold down Shift
3. Hold the ↓ key until they are all selected
4. Now press F5

Answer 7

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"