How To Install Eclipse IDE on Ubuntu 18.04

Eclipse is a popular, well-known Integrated Development Environment for application development. It is the most widely used Java IDE and is written in C and Java, released under Eclipse Public License.

Eclipse is not only used for Java development, but it is also used for developing applications on various programming languages including, Ada, C, C++, Perl, PHP, Python, R, Ruby, Ruby on Rails framework, Clojure, Scala, Groovy, and Scheme.

Eclipse's functionality can be extended with the help of plugins available in Eclipse Marketplace.

Here, we will install Eclipse IDE for Java Developers on Ubuntu 18.04.

Prerequisites

Eclipse requires Java JDK / JRE 8 or above to be available on your machine. Install OpenJDK.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y openjdk-8-jdk-headless

Verify the Java version on your machine.

java -version

Output:

openjdk version "1.8.0_191"
OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_191-8u191-b12-2ubuntu0.18.04.1-b12)
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (build 25.191-b12, mixed mode)

Install the wget package on your system to download the Eclipse IDE package from the internet over a terminal.

sudo apt install -y wget

Install Eclipse IDE

Download the latest version of Eclipse IDE 2019-03 from the official page using a web browser or download the Eclipse IDE 2019-03 package over a terminal using the following command.

wget http://ftp.yz.yamagata-u.ac.jp/pub/eclipse/technology/epp/downloads/release/2019-03/R/eclipse-java-2019-03-R-linux-gtk-x86_64.tar.gz

Extract the downloaded Eclipse IDE package to your desired directory (Ex. /opt/).

sudo tar -zxvf eclipse-java-2019-*-R-linux-gtk-x86_64.tar.gz -C /opt

Create a link to the eclipse executable to /usr/bin path so that all users in the machine can able to use Eclipse.

sudo ln -s /opt/eclipse/eclipse /usr/bin/eclipse

Create Launcher Icon for Eclipse IDE

Having a launcher icon on the menu would be very handy to start the application right from the desktop.

sudo nano /usr/share/applications/eclipse.desktop

Place the below entries to the above file:

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=Eclipse IDE 2019-03
Comment=Eclipse IDE 2019-03
Exec=/usr/bin/eclipse
Icon=/opt/eclipse/icon.xpm
Terminal=false
Type=Application
StartupNotify=false

Open Eclipse IDE

Command line

eclipse

Graphical User Interface

Go to Activities » Search for Eclipse.

Configure the workspace for Eclipse.

Eclipse IDE 2019-03 running on Ubuntu 18.04:

Conclusion

You have successfully set up Eclipse IDE on Ubuntu 18.04. As if required, you can enable the support for other languages which are not available by default with the help of extensions available in Eclipse Marketplace. Also, you can get started with Eclipse by visiting the official Eclipse Documentation