Changes in 6.3.0

Bnd/Bndtools 6.3.0

See the Release section of the README for where to find Bnd/Bndtools.

Bndtools

• Bndtools "Bnd Bundle Path" class path container now supports negation in the packages attribute of -buildpath and -testpath clauses. Negated packages are marked NON_ACCESSIBLE in Eclipse.

Bndtools m2e

• TBD

Bnd

• Bnd adds decoration support, with unused literal inclusion, for the following instructions:
  • -conditionalpackage
  • -privatepackage
  • -includepackage
  • -includeresource
• The -privatepackage instruction is now also a merged instruction.
• The path instructions, such as -buildpath, -testpath, and -runbundles, which already support decoration, now include unused literals.
• Unused literal inclusion decoration now allows the decoration to add additional entries to the beginning or the end of the decorated item.
• Instruction decoration now support removal of attributes and non-overwriting of attributes. Prefixing the attribute name with ! means removal. Prefixing the attribute name with ~ means do not overwrite an existing attribute value.

Bnd Command Line

• TBD

Documentation

• The styling of the documentation has added a search bar and indication of when macros and instructions are in effect.

Bnd Maven Plugins

• TBD

Bnd Gradle Plugins

• TBD

Backward compatibility

• Bndtools is built to run on Eclipse 2020-06 (4.16) or later. So Bndtools may not run on older versions of Eclipse.
• Bndtools m2e is built to run on Eclipse m2e 1.16.0 or later. So Bndtools m2e may not run on older versions of Eclipse m2e.
• The Bnd Maven plugins require a minimum of Maven 3.3.9.
• The Bnd Gradle plugins require a minimum of Gradle 6.7 for Java 8 to Java 15, Gradle 7.0 for Java 16, and Gradle 7.3 for Java 17.
• The Bnd Gradle plugins and tasks underwent a large update in 6.0 to modernize their implementations and prepare for Gradle 7 and newer Gradle idioms. All Bnd Gradle task properties are now Gradle Properties and should generally be set using an assignment in your build script. A number of previously deprecated task properties have been removed. The conventions are now deprecated and replaced by extensions.

Known Issues

• Eclipse m2e has a bug which can result in build looping. If you experience this, update Eclipse m2e to 1.18.2 or later which seems to have fixed the issue.

• Windows 10 users: Windows 10 Defender significantly slows down Eclipse, reason being Windows 10 Defender scanning the JAR files. The problem has been reported to Microsoft here. Until then, a workaround to this problem is to add Eclipse root directory to Windows 10 Defender’s exclusion list, detailed steps are shared here.

  Note: This is not just an Eclipse issue on Windows 10.

  See also Bnd Tips for Windows users.