Install Eclipse IDE on Ubuntu 18.04 | 20.04

Before installing Eclipse IDE on Ubuntu or Linux, you must have Java 8+ installed on your computer.

Complete the steps below to install the Eclipse IDE

1. Go to Eclipse Official Download page and look for "Eclipse IDE for Enterprise Java Developers" and click on "Linux 64-bit". You will be redirected to the download page. Click on the download link.

2. Next, open the terminal and navigate to the directory where you have downloaded the file. For this example, I have downloaded the file in Downloads directory.

     cd Downloads
    

3. Next, unzip the downloaded tar.gz file using the command given in the example below:

     tar -xzvf eclipse-jee-2019-06-R-linux-gtk-x86_64.tar.gz
    

4. Next move the unzipped eclipse folder to /opt location.

    sudo mv eclipse /opt
    

5. Run the following command on the terminal:

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

It will launch an empty file. Copy and paste the followings into the empty file, as shown below:

    [Desktop Entry]
    Name=Eclipse
    Type=Application
    Exec=/opt/eclipse/eclipse
    Terminal=false
    Icon=/opt/eclipse/icon.xpm
    Comment=Integrated Development Environment
    NoDisplay=false
    Categories=Development;IDE;
    Name[en]=eclipse.desktop
    

6. Next save the file and run following command on the terminal. This will automatically install this desktop file on your Ubuntu/Linux system.

    sudo desktop-file-install /usr/share/applications/eclipse.desktop

7. Now, finally run the following two commands. Go to /usr/local/bin and set up a symlink to /usr/bin.

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

The installation is complete.

After installation, you can launch Eclipse IDE from Applications menu by searching with the Eclipse keyword. When you open it for the first time, it will ask you to specify workspace, once done, main page will be loaded.