Interpreting eclipse .classpath file. What does 'kind="con"' and 'exported="true"' mean?
This is the eclipse .classpath file of the eclipse plugin program that I downloaded.
I think that kind="src" and kind="output" is pretty straight forward, as they means the where the source java files and compiled class files are located.
The kind="lib" seems to indicate the jar files the plugin is referencing, but I have something that I'm not sure about.
- What does the
kind="con"mean? - What is it for the
exported="true"? I think in order to use this plugin, all the jar files that the plugin refers to should be exported, but only some of them are exported.
Answer
1) In kind="con", the con stands for container, which is interpreted by eclipse as a classpath container. As described in that link:
A classpath container provides a way to indirectly reference a set of classpath entries through a classpath entry of kind CPE_CONTAINER
In other words, it enables grouping of other classpath entries in any way and re-use it wherever (including the ability of having different entries for different projects).
2) exported:
Say you have Project B that depends on Project C. The dependency is defined as exported=true. Then, another Project A that depends on Project B, will have also Project C present on A'a classpath.