Viewing Eclipse Error Logs

If you are ever having trouble with Eclipse or any plugin such as CFEclipse you can always view the "Eclipse error log".

The best way to view these is through Eclipse: Window > Show View > Other > PDE Runtime > Error Log

(If you do not see "PDE Runtime" see "To Enable PDE Runtime" below)

This will open up a new view with 3 columns.

• Message - first you'll see a status icon i.e. error or Warning which will then be followed by the log message
• Plug-in - where the error originated from
• Date - when it happened

If an error has a plus sign (+) at the start of the log then this means it is a complex problem, and there are a number of errors contributing to it. Click the plus sign to view the individual errors. By double-clicking on the entry this provides further details and information like Stack Trace.

The actual log is kept along with your OS logs:

• On Windows, the local error log is the Windows Event log (Application view)
• On Mac OS X the log is a part of the console.log
• On UNIX and Linux systems, the local error log is the syslog

To Enable PDE Runtime

To access PDE Runtime facilities you must first enable the PDE capabilities in your workbench. To enable the PDE capabilities:

Eclipse 3.2+

1. Click Window > Preferences to open the Preferences window.
2. Expand General in the left hand pane, and click Capabilities.
3. Click Advanced...
4. Expand Development
5. Select Plug-in Development
6. Click OK or Apply to apply your changes.

Verify "PDE Runtime" appears in the Show View list.

Alternative Method:

• Help > About Eclipse SDK > Configuration Details
• From there, click the "view error log" button. this will load the error log in your web browser.