Windows console launcher (eclipsec.exe) not reading vmargs from eclipse.ini when there is no console window

[jonathan-meier]

When the console launcher eclipsec.exe on Windows is started without a console window, the vmargs specified in eclipse.ini are ignored. This can easily be tested e.g. by adding debugging arguments -agentlib:jdwp=transport=dt_socket,server=y,suspend=y,address=8000 to the eclipse.ini of an Eclipse IDE installation.

Starting the Eclipse IDE running eclipsec.exe on the command line works as expected: The JVM waits for a debugger to attach with the message Listening for transport dt_socket at address: 8000.

Starting the Eclipse IDE using Runtime.getRuntime().exec("eclipsec.exe") (easiest to do with jshell) does not work as expected: The JVM does not wait for a debugger to attach and just runs the Eclipse IDE. Apparently, the vmargs specified in eclipse.ini are ignored. In fact, using procmon from SysInternals shows that in this case eclipsec.exe only attempts to read eclipsec.ini but not eclipse.ini.

Whether eclipse.ini is consulted in addition to eclipsec.ini to read the vmargs is determined by the function isConsoleLauncher which checks whether there is a console window or not:

equinox/features/org.eclipse.equinox.executable.feature/library/eclipse.c

Lines 1609 to 1618 in a3a9628

	static int isConsoleLauncher() {
	HWND (WINAPI *GetConsoleWindow)();
	void * handle = loadLibrary(_T_ECLIPSE("Kernel32.dll"));
	if (handle != NULL) {
	if ( (GetConsoleWindow = findSymbol(handle, _T_ECLIPSE("GetConsoleWindow"))) != NULL) {
	return GetConsoleWindow() != NULL;
	}
	}
	return 0;
	}

It turns out that there are ways to start the console launcher without a console window. One such case is via Runtime.getRuntime().exec("eclipsec.exe") which apparently uses the CREATE_NO_WINDOW flag when creating the process (see https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/procthread/process-creation-flags).

The issue came up when running an Ant script that executes an eclipse application using its console launcher in an exec task. Ant uses Runtime.getRuntime().exec("<command_line>") internally. The workaround in this case is to explicitly specify the eclipse.ini file on the command line: eclipsec.exe --launcher.ini eclipse.ini.

[github-actions]

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[umairsair]

is this fix part of latest eclipse releases?

IIUC, the binaries are picked from following location and I don't see a new commit after this fix.. am I missing something here?

https://github.com/eclipse-equinox/equinox.binaries/tree/master/org.eclipse.equinox.executable/bin/win32/win32/x86_64

[jonahgraham]

is this fix part of latest eclipse releases?

No - doesn't look like it.

In the past it looks like someone has manually run https://ci.eclipse.org/releng/job/Build-eclipse-launcher/

I have raised eclipse-platform/eclipse.platform.releng.aggregator#1407