Setting up Eclipse in Ubuntu 12.10 in 10 steps

A quick post on how to set up Eclipse in Ubuntu 12.10

1. Download your preferred version of Eclipse from http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/
   It is usually downloaded in the ~/Downloads directory, and the filename starts with "eclipse"
   
   
2. Open a terminal window and go to the download directory
   Mine was:
   cd ~/Downloads
   
   
3. Execute to untar (you can replace the "eclipse*" with the filename that you have downloaded):
   tar -zxvf eclipse*
   
   
4. The previous step extracted a folder named "eclipse". Move this directory to /opt
   sudo mv eclipse /opt
   
   
5. Execute to setup the permissions:
   sudo chmod -R +r /opt/eclipse
   sudo chmod +x /opt/eclipse/eclipse
   
   
6. Append at the end of ~/.profile or ~/.bashrc the following. Execute first:
   gedit ~/.profile
   
   Then add the following line at the end of the file and save:
   
   # Eclipse environment variables
   export ECLIPSE_HOME="/opt/eclipse"
   export PATH=$PATH:$ECLIPSE_HOME
   
   
7. Create a directory for the user shortcut:
   sudo mkdir /usr/lib/eclipse
   
   
8. Then execute to set the shortcut:
   sudo ln -s /opt/eclipse/eclipse /usr/lib/eclipse/eclipse
   
   
9. To create the menu icon, create a new file as follows:
   sudo gedit /usr/share/applications/eclipse.desktop
   
   Enter the following lines in the file and save:
   
   [Desktop Entry]
   Type=Application
   Name=Eclipse
   Comment=Eclipse Integrated Development Environment
   Icon=/opt/eclipse/icon.xpm
   Exec=/opt/eclipse/eclipse
   Terminal=false
   Categories=Development;IDE;Java;
   
   
10. Run a clean for the first time:
    eclipse -clean

That's all! You will be able to start Eclipse from the terminal or from the Application menu!