E4 Spies removed from the RCP developer release in 2023-09 -> should be restored in next release...

[opcoach]

Since 2023-09, the E4 spies are not provided in Eclipse for RCP and RAP developers

This is not handy as developing RCP plugins (either E3 or E4) are running on the E4 engine... and the spies allow to display what's happening internally at runtime.

As it has been discussed in https://github.com/eclipse-pde/eclipse.pde/discussions/415 the 'org.eclipse.pde.spies' feature is available on the update site but it should be considered as natively included in those 2 eclipse releases..

A long time ago, we had to install them using the market place (I was maintaining it, and I saw today that the releases are not correctly filtered, so the out of date 0.19 spies is proposed for the 2023-09, which is confusing)... Since the 2022-03 it was not necessary to install them anymore... and now.. since 2023-09, we should install them by using 'Install New Software...' and select the feature...

This is really messy and confusing...

This issue is opened to include again this feature in the releases : 'RCP and RAP developers'.

[merks]

It seems to be there:

https://github.com/eclipse-packaging/packages/blob/ef0323b40853d0240c63b8bcf90d35475a6ebb2f/packages/org.eclipse.epp.package.rcp.product/epp.product#L253

It's also in the generated catalog:

There must be some confusion...

[jonahgraham]

org.eclipse.pde.spies feature does not appear in the features of the RCP and RAP:

$ ls features | grep pde
org.eclipse.m2e.pde.feature_2.2.200.20230820-0922
org.eclipse.mylyn.pde.feature_4.0.0.v20230804-1109
org.eclipse.pde_3.15.100.v20230903-1000

nor all the plug-ins there. Something is certainly amiss here.

[opcoach]

Yes this is weird... I checked in the git repo, and for the tag 4.29-R, it is also present in the epp.product...

So it should be present... but there are not ... (I downloaded again the Macosx-cocoa-aarch64 to check and the spies are not in the product... )

[jonahgraham]

The build log shows it missing:

[INFO] --- tycho-p2-director-plugin:3.0.5:materialize-products (materialize-products) @ epp.package.rcp ---
[INFO] Installing product epp.package.rcp for environment linux/gtk/x86_64 to /home/jenkins/agent/workspace/simrel.epp-tycho-build/org.eclipse.epp.packages/packages/org.eclipse.epp.package.rcp.product/target/products/epp.package.rcp/linux/gtk/x86_64/eclipse
Installing epp.package.rcp 4.29.0.20230907-1200.
Installing org.eclipse.epp.mpc.feature.group 1.10.1.v20221110-1841.
Installing org.eclipse.oomph.setup.feature.group 1.29.0.v20230828-1517.
Installing org.eclipse.tm.terminal.feature.feature.group 11.3.0.202307110141.
Installing org.eclipse.justj.epp.feature.group 17.0.0.v20230831-1210.
Installing org.eclipse.egit.feature.group 6.7.0.202309050840-r.
Installing org.eclipse.jgit.feature.group 6.7.0.202309050840-r.
Installing org.eclipse.mylyn.wikitext_feature.feature.group 3.0.48.202308291007.
Installing org.eclipse.mylyn.commons.activity.feature.feature.group 4.0.0.v20230804-1109.
Installing org.eclipse.mylyn.egit.feature.feature.group 4.0.0.v20230804-1109.
Installing org.eclipse.mylyn.ide.feature.feature.group 4.0.0.v20230804-1109.
Installing org.eclipse.mylyn.git.feature.feature.group 4.0.0.v20230804-1109.
Installing org.eclipse.mylyn.github.feature.feature.group 6.3.0.v20230804-1109.
Installing org.eclipse.mylyn.jenkins.feature.feature.group 4.0.0.v20230804-1109.
Installing org.eclipse.mylyn.reviews.feature.feature.group 4.0.0.v20230804-1109.
Installing org.eclipse.jdt.bcoview.feature.feature.group 1.2.100.v20230702-0923.
Installing org.eclipse.buildship.feature.group 3.1.7.v20230428-1350.
Installing org.eclipse.e4.core.tools.feature.feature.group 4.29.0.v20230801-1009.
Installing org.eclipse.eclemma.feature.feature.group 3.1.7.202306070845.
Installing org.eclipse.egit.feature.group 6.7.0.202309050840-r.
Installing org.eclipse.egit.gitflow.feature.feature.group 6.7.0.202309050840-r.
Installing org.eclipse.m2e.feature.feature.group 2.4.100.20230827-1557.
Installing org.eclipse.m2e.pde.feature.feature.group 2.2.200.20230820-0922.
Installing org.eclipse.m2e.lemminx.feature.feature.group 2.0.5.20230815-1219.
Installing org.eclipse.m2e.logback.feature.feature.group 2.2.0.20230819-1220.
Installing org.eclipse.rap.tools.feature.feature.group 3.26.0.20230905-1200.
Installing org.eclipse.swtbot.eclipse.gef.feature.group 4.1.0.202306071420.
Installing org.eclipse.swtbot.eclipse.feature.group 4.1.0.202306071420.
Installing org.eclipse.swtbot.ide.feature.group 4.1.0.202306071420.
Installing org.eclipse.wst.xml_ui.feature.feature.group 3.31.0.v202308200343.
Installing org.eclipse.passage.ldc.feature.feature.group 2.9.0.v20230812-1000.
Installing org.eclipse.mylyn.jdt.feature.feature.group 4.0.0.v20230804-1109.
Installing org.eclipse.mylyn.pde.feature.feature.group 4.0.0.v20230804-1109.
Operation completed in 61134 ms.

compared to committers:

[INFO] --- tycho-p2-director-plugin:3.0.5:materialize-products (materialize-products) @ epp.package.committers ---
[INFO] Installing product epp.package.committers for environment linux/gtk/x86_64 to /home/jenkins/agent/workspace/simrel.epp-tycho-build/org.eclipse.epp.packages/packages/org.eclipse.epp.package.committers.product/target/products/epp.package.committers/linux/gtk/x86_64/eclipse
Installing epp.package.committers 4.29.0.20230907-1200.
Installing org.eclipse.epp.mpc.feature.group 1.10.1.v20221110-1841.
Installing org.eclipse.oomph.setup.feature.group 1.29.0.v20230828-1517.
Installing org.eclipse.tm.terminal.feature.feature.group 11.3.0.202307110141.
Installing org.eclipse.justj.epp.feature.group 17.0.0.v20230831-1210.
Installing org.eclipse.egit.feature.group 6.7.0.202309050840-r.
Installing org.eclipse.jgit.feature.group 6.7.0.202309050840-r.
Installing org.eclipse.mylyn.wikitext_feature.feature.group 3.0.48.202308291007.
Installing org.eclipse.mylyn.commons.activity.feature.feature.group 4.0.0.v20230804-1109.
Installing org.eclipse.mylyn.egit.feature.feature.group 4.0.0.v20230804-1109.
Installing org.eclipse.mylyn.ide.feature.feature.group 4.0.0.v20230804-1109.
Installing org.eclipse.mylyn.git.feature.feature.group 4.0.0.v20230804-1109.
Installing org.eclipse.mylyn.github.feature.feature.group 6.3.0.v20230804-1109.
Installing org.eclipse.mylyn.jenkins.feature.feature.group 4.0.0.v20230804-1109.
Installing org.eclipse.mylyn.reviews.feature.feature.group 4.0.0.v20230804-1109.
Installing org.eclipse.jdt.feature.group 3.19.200.v20230903-1000.
Installing org.eclipse.jdt.bcoview.feature.feature.group 1.2.100.v20230702-0923.
Installing org.eclipse.pde.feature.group 3.15.100.v20230903-1000.
Installing org.eclipse.pde.spies.feature.group 1.0.100.v20230728-2154.
Installing org.eclipse.e4.core.tools.feature.feature.group 4.29.0.v20230801-1009.
Installing org.eclipse.platform.source.feature.group 4.29.0.v20230903-1000.
Installing org.eclipse.rcp.source.feature.group 4.29.0.v20230903-1000.
Installing org.eclipse.jdt.source.feature.group 3.19.200.v20230903-1000.
Installing org.eclipse.pde.source.feature.group 3.15.100.v20230903-1000.
Installing org.eclipse.pde.spies.source.feature.group 1.0.100.v20230728-2154.  <-- HERE IT IS
Installing org.eclipse.buildship.feature.group 3.1.7.v20230428-1350.
Installing org.eclipse.eclemma.feature.feature.group 3.1.7.202306070845.
Installing org.eclipse.m2e.feature.feature.group 2.4.100.20230827-1557.
Installing org.eclipse.m2e.pde.feature.feature.group 2.2.200.20230820-0922.
Installing org.eclipse.m2e.lemminx.feature.feature.group 2.0.5.20230815-1219.
Installing org.eclipse.egit.gitflow.feature.feature.group 6.7.0.202309050840-r.
Installing org.eclipse.jgit.http.apache.feature.group 6.7.0.202309050840-r.
Installing org.eclipse.swt.tools.feature.feature.group 3.109.100.v20230803-0617.
Installing org.eclipse.wildwebdeveloper.feature.feature.group 1.2.1.202308101949.
Installing org.eclipse.wildwebdeveloper.embedder.node.feature.feature.group 1.0.6.202308092312.
Installing org.eclipse.mylyn.jdt.feature.feature.group 4.0.0.v20230804-1109.
Installing org.eclipse.mylyn.pde.feature.feature.group 4.0.0.v20230804-1109.
Operation completed in 62050 ms.

[jonahgraham]

There is a difference, in rcp the feature is not a root feature. But it is in the p2.inf. Therefore the zips/tars/dmgs are missing it, but oomph installs have it.

[jonahgraham]

I don't have time to look at this much today, but I guess the quick fix is to make the items install as root.

[jonahgraham]

One way or another this I'll get this fixed by 2023-12 M1 which I will be working on this Thursday.

[opcoach]

Ok thank you !

And the workaround for the 2023-09 is to use 'install new software' and to download the feature from the 2023-09 update site.

[jonahgraham]

Complete now - I added a short line in the N&N which is linked from https://eclipseide.org/release/noteworthy/