Weird thing this morning, started Eclipse, like usual, using my PortableProgram frontloader and I got an error from the past, an error, I happen to know made me reinstall eclipse from a backup cause I couldnt find the real cause. The error was that eclipse cannot be started and I had a log of the error in the file:

WorkspaceLocation/.metadata/.log

Looking at this file, I found LOOOOOOOOADS of errors, all relating to not being able to find the plugin information it needs to start, which was blocking Eclipse from functioning properly. Here is a snippet if you recognise something similar, maybe this solution will help you as well as it helped me.

[chris@chris eclipse]$ cat /media/Shadows/projects/work/bluemedia/workspace/.metadata/.log
!SESSION 2007-06-21 01:00:48.101 ———————————————–
eclipse.buildId=M20070212-1330
java.version=1.6.0
java.vendor=Sun Microsystems Inc.
BootLoader constants: OS=linux, ARCH=x86, WS=gtk, NL=es_ES
Command-line arguments: -os linux -ws gtk -arch x86

This is a continuation of log file /media/Shadows/projects/work/bluemedia/workspace/.metadata/.bak_0.log
Created Time: 2007-06-21 01:01:21.205

!ENTRY org.eclipse.osgi 4 0 2007-06-21 01:01:21.206
!MESSAGE Application error
!STACK 1
java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: org/eclipse/core/resources/IContainer
at org.eclipse.ui.internal.ide.IDEApplication.run(IDEApplication.java:96)
at org.eclipse.core.internal.runtime.PlatformActivator$1.run(PlatformActivator.java:78)
ETC, ETC, ETC, ETC, ETC……………..

!ENTRY org.eclipse.osgi 2 0 2007-06-21 01:01:22.332
!MESSAGE One or more bundles are not resolved because the following root constraints are not resolved:
!SUBENTRY 1 org.eclipse.osgi 2 0 2007-06-21 01:01:22.332
!MESSAGE Bundle update@plugins/org.eclipse.birt.report.data.oda.jdbc_2.2.0.v20070531/ was not resolved.
!SUBENTRY 2 org.eclipse.birt.report.data.oda.jdbc 2 0 2007-06-21 01:01:22.332
!MESSAGE Missing required bundle org.eclipse.datatools.connectivity.oda_[3.1.0,4.0.0).
!SUBENTRY 1 org.eclipse.osgi 2 0 2007-06-21 01:01:22.333
!MESSAGE Bundle update@plugins/org.eclipse.birt.report.data.oda.jdbc.ui_2.2.0.v20070531.jar was not resolved.
!SUBENTRY 2 org.eclipse.birt.report.data.oda.jdbc.ui 2 0 2007-06-21 01:01:22.333
!MESSAGE Missing required bundle org.eclipse.datatools.connectivity.oda.design.ui_[3.0.4,4.0.0).
ETC, ETC, ETC, ETC……..

So, you can imagine what I am thinking, this worked perfectly 5 hours ago, I closed Eclipse, now it doesnt work.

Well, the solution in the end was quite simple, what I did was I deleted the directory

WorkspaceLocation/configuration/.settings

and Re-ran eclipse, I was confronted with the choose a workspace dialog, I selected a workspace and it opened without any of those problems.

I am not entirely sure of why this is caused, but at least I know a way to stop and prevent it!!!

UPDATE #1:

Even though now you can run Eclipse, you still cannot open the affected workspace. I have found that there is actually a relationship between this crash and a file called a .snap file that is contained inside the workspace directory you are trying to open. If you delete the file

WorkspaceLocation/.metadata/org.eclipse.core.resources/.snap

(if it exists)and attempt to open the workspace again, it’ll work, UNFORTUNATELY, all your projects are now missing and I am sure deleting that file will erase ALL your project settings (it has to me in this instance). But if you cannot even open the workspace, it might be easier for you to recreate them than to create a brand new workspace, it’s up to you which solution you use, I’ll have to investigate this further the next time it happens.
Ciao for now!