So I want to try out Buckminster. I got the book, Eclipse Buckminster, The Definitive Guide by Hendrik Lindberg (affectionately called the Bucky Book). It's a pdf downloadable from the Buckminster site, http://www.eclipse.org/buckminster/ . It's at version 0.6, but hasn't been updated since July, 2009.

I'm running Eclipse 3.6M4 on a Mac with Snow Leopard. To get Buckminster, go to the Buckminster site and click on Downloads. You get the screen below. I took the Buckminster updates-3.6 for the 3.6 bleeding edge.

Then, go to Help -> Install New Software and put in the Buckminster update site.

What follows is a record of my running the example in Chapter 13 of the Bucky Book. This example builds a p2 update site for a simple plugin.

Create a plugin (File → New → Other → Plugin Project) called org.demo.demoplugin and a feature (File → New → Other → Plugin Development → Feature Project) called org.demo.demofeature and choose org.demo.demoplugin as the plugin for the feature.

But then the key seems to be that you make another Feature Project called org.demo.demosite for the update site. This describes the update site. This feature (called the site feature) does not itself get published.

For the site feature,

• Specify the Included Features to include org.demo.demofeature.

• Add category lines to this feature's build.properties.

category.id.org.demo.democategory=Cool Features (demo)
category.members.org.demo.democategory=org.demo.demofeature
category.description.org.demo.democategory=Cool stuff build in a Buckminster demo

• Create a buckminster.properties file. I added the file to the project org.demo.demosite.

# Where all the output should go
buckminster.output.root=${user.home}/BuckyFiles/BuckyDemo/demosite
# Where the temp files should go
buckminster.temp.root=${user.home}/BuckyFiles/BuckyDemo/tmp/demosite.tmp
# How .qualifier in versions should be replaced
qualifier.replacement.*=generator:lastRevision

Then, create the update site by right-clicking on org.demo.demosite, selecting Buckminster → Invoke Action and pointing action properties to buckminster.properties, then choosing site.p2 as the action.

The update site gets made at /Users/ted/BuckyFiles/BuckyDemo/demosite/org.demo.demosite_1.0.0-eclipse.feature/site.p2.

Then, you can use the new p2 update site by pointing to file:/Users/ted/BuckyFiles/BuckyDemo/demosite/org.demo.demosite_1.0.0-eclipse.feature/site.p2/. Note that the / after site.p2 is important.

Click Next, then Finish. I get a warning that I am installing unsigned content. Click OK. Restart Eclipse, and when it comes up, do a Window -> Show View -> Other and choose the Demoplugin View.

This is the default Plugin with a View. To uninstall it, go to Help ->Install New Software and click on already installed. Then, select Demofeature and click Uninstall. Confirm the Uninstall Details and click Finish. Restart Eclipse.