[eclipse-dev] Export-Package and You...

[Jeff McAffer <Jeff_McAffer@xxxxxxxxxx>]

It has recently become apparent that
various Eclipse teams have not been following the convention of exporting
all packages in their plugins.  Back in the 3.1 time frame, while
adopting the MANIFEST.MF from of plugin description, we as a team adopted
the convention quoted below.  There are several plugins now in 3.2
which have deviated from this model.  Note that PDE, as always, includes
something to help here.  The PDE Tools > Organize Manifest operation
will do the work for you, all you have to do is invoke the operation from
time to time.  Teams should review their manifests and package lists
to ensure that the are following the convention.  Much to Tod's dismay
and Sonia/Kim's delight this is NOT cause for rebuilds in 3.2 unless someone
finds a particularly egregious case.  The problems should however
be fixed for 3.2.1.

Jeff

Original convention statement from http://dev.eclipse.org/mhonarc/lists/eclipse-dev/msg07092.html
(April 8, 2005)

There is still some confusion around
the Export-Package list in the MANIFEST.MF.  Allow me to clarify the
situation for all Eclipse SDK plugins.

*   ALL Eclipse SDK plugins must
list ALL of their packages in their MANIFEST.MF files.  
*   API or not.  If you have
a package on your plugin's classpath, it must be listed.  
*   New?  List it!  Old?
 List it!  Borrowed from a friend? List it!  

Exceptions to this model should be taken
up with the PMC.

Notice that this puts us in exactly
the same situation as we have always been in.  Everyone has the ability
to see everything.  As we have seen in the past couple days, the community's
desire/need for the freedom to access non-API is overwhelming.  In
fact, this forms a critical part of the Eclipse ecosystem allowing experimentation
and investigation.

This approach is NOT at odds with, and
is fundamentally separate from, our ongoing work to get control over the
API and help developers stay on "the right path".  That
effort is supported by the addition of the component.xml files, the use
of "x-internal" and "x-friends" annotations on export
entries and the PDE/JDT work to more accurately model the runtime classpath
at development time.  

All teams please review your Export-Package
lists and ensure that all packages are listed correctly.