Downloading an eclipse plugin (without installing it)

Question

I'm in the process of bootstrapping our Eclipse + Plugins installs. Due to some proxy settings on our end, I would like users to avoid having to connect to the internet directly (via the Eclipse Software Update option). Instead my plan is to download any required plugins once, stored them on a shared location, and use eclipse "dropin" folders for plugin installs.

How do I download a plugin (and preferably all of its dependencies) without actually installing it?

In my case one of the Eclipse Plugins (gradle) .. only offers a link for installing via Software update (and not a direct download).

http://dist.springsource.com/release/TOOLS/gradle

The only workaround that I can think of is installing the plugin (via Software Update), and comparing the update eclipse directory against a clean one to see what jars were added.

Eugene Kuleshov Eugene Kuleshov · Accepted Answer · 2012-03-28T00:49:38

You can mirror a remote repository using Eclipse p2 command line tool. For example:

<eclipseInstall>\eclipse.exe
   -application org.eclipse.equinox.p2.artifact.repository.mirrorApplication
   -source http://download.eclipse.org/releases/ganymede
   -destination file:c:/artifactLocalRepository/

Downloading an eclipse plugin (without installing it)

1 Answers