- FAQ 94: What is a plug-in?
- FAQ 95: Do I use plugin or plug-in?
- FAQ 96: What is the plug-in manifest file (plugin.xml)?
- FAQ 97: How do I make my plug-in connect to other plug-ins?
- FAQ 98: What are extensions and extension points?
- FAQ 99: What is an extension point schema?
- FAQ 100: How do I find out more about a certain extension point?
- FAQ 101: When does a plug-in get started?
- FAQ 102: Where do plug-ins store their state?
- FAQ 103: How do I find out the install location of a plug-in?
- FAQ 104: What is the classpath of a plug-in?
- FAQ 105: How do I add a library to the classpath of a plug-in?
- FAQ 106: How can I share a JAR among various plug-ins?
- FAQ 107: How do I use the context class loader in Eclipse?
- FAQ 108: Why doesnt Eclipse play well with Xerces?
- FAQ 109: What is a plug-in fragment?
- FAQ 110: Can fragments be used to patch a plug-in?
- FAQ 111: What is a configuration?
- FAQ 112: How do I find out whether the Eclipse Platform is running?
- FAQ 113: Where does System.out and System.err output go?
- FAQ 114: How do I locate the owner plug-in from a given class?
- FAQ 115: How does OSGi and the new runtime affect me?
- FAQ 116: What is a dynamic plug-in?
- FAQ 117: How do I make my plug-in dynamic enabled?
- FAQ 118: How do I make my plug-in dynamic aware?
FAQ 113: Where does System.out and System.err output go?
Most of the time, the answer is nowhere. Eclipse is simply a Java program, and it acts like any other Java program with respect to its output streams. When launched from a shell or command line, the output will generally go back to that shell. In Windows, the output will disappear completely if Eclipse is launched using the javaw.exe VM. When Eclipse is launched using java.exe, a shell window will be created for the output.
Because the output is usually lost, you should avoid using standard output or standard error in your plug-in. Instead, you can log error information by using the platform logging facility. Other forms of output should be written to a file, database, socket, or other persistent store. The only common use of standard output is for writing debugging information, when the application is in debug mode. Read up on the platform tracing facility for more information.
Note
FAQ 121 How do I use the platform logging facility?
FAQ 122 How do I use the platform debug tracing facility?