Improve markers experience with "Clean all projects"

[vogella]

If I currently select "Clean all projects" the error markers remains visible until the responsible builder starts the project and removes and updates the markers.

New markers arrive in the problems views and mix with the old outdated markers because the Problems view updates in real-time.

In case we select "Clean all projects", we could delete all markers before the builder gets active. This would allow the user to looks at the valid problem markers which are created during the build without having to guess which one of the other problem markers are still valid.

Especially useful for builds which take a long time, for example one of my clients has a build of approx. 20 minutes for his workspace (and due to strange IDE behavior feels that he has to do a full clean build from time to time).

Batch deletion of markers is very efficient AFAIK, e.g.,

workspace.run(m-> {
   projects.deleteMarkers(null, true, IResource.DEPTH_INFINITE);
}, null);

[merks]

I think you assume markers are only created by builders, right. Many editors create markers while the editor is open, which seems not really correct but that’s how it works too.

[ptziegler]

Isn't this how the IncrementalProjectBuilder works already? We have our own builder in our application and if I do a clean build there, IncrementalProjectBuilder.clean(...) is called for all projects and only after that, IncrementalProjectBuilder.build(...).

[vogella]

Isn't this how the IncrementalProjectBuilder works already? We have our own builder in our application and if I do a clean build there, IncrementalProjectBuilder.clean(...) is called for all projects and only after that, IncrementalProjectBuilder.build(...).

Maybe that is what your builder are doing (and that would be great) but I clean a big workspace the markers are not all deleted before creating new once. I assume the builder takes project by project or that different builders have to wait due to the "big workspace lock" which most builder use.

[vogella]

I think you assume markers are only created by builders, right. Many editors create markers while the editor is open, which seems not really correct but that’s how it works too.

Interesting, I need to think about that. Thanks for this information.

[vogella]

Note to myself: Maybe change Clean All to trigger first a clean build without re-building: that should make the individual builders delete everything and afterwards do the same thing again with builder. Not sure how much overhead an "empty" deletion run would be. To be investigated.

[vogella]

@ptziegler this is a picture of markers during build, "Unknow" is a marker which will be replaced soon by the builder.

[ptziegler]

@vogella My point is: As far as I can tell, performing a "clean all" already triggers two builds: a "clean build", followed by a "full build" (via the auto-build/ global build action).

eclipse.platform.ui/bundles/org.eclipse.ui.ide/src/org/eclipse/ui/internal/ide/dialogs/CleanDialog.java

Lines 351 to 362 in 6e6bbbf

	protected void doClean(boolean cleanAll, IProgressMonitor monitor)
	throws CoreException {
	if (cleanAll) {
	ResourcesPlugin.getWorkspace().build(IncrementalProjectBuilder.CLEAN_BUILD, monitor);
	} else {
	SubMonitor subMonitor = SubMonitor.convert(monitor, IDEWorkbenchMessages.CleanDialog_cleanSelectedTaskName,
	selection.length);
	for (Object currentSelection : selection) {
	((IProject) currentSelection).build(IncrementalProjectBuilder.CLEAN_BUILD, subMonitor.split(1));
	}
	}
	}

Any error markers should therefore already be deleted during the "clean build" phase, so explicitly removing them seems redundant (and potentially harmful, if markers are deleted indiscriminately). I therefore don't think that this is what's causing the behavior on the "Problems" view. Perhaps the markers are updated simply asynchronously?

[vogella]

@ptziegler per builder that is true, but I guess different builders have to wait due to the "big workspace lock" which most builder use hence you see a bix of "current" and "outdated" markers.

I plan to investigate this the above it just an assumption.

[iloveeclipse]

My 2 cents.

Common practice is that the someone who created markers is responsible for deleting it. Of course one can manually delete markers from the Problems view, but I believe there is a warning shown, so this is the "last resort".

"Clean all projects" action triggers some workspace operation that manages markers, it should not interfere with this operation or replace it.

Problems view is a view in the workspace problems, it is supposed to update asynchronously by listening to resource changes, so if you see some older state while running a build, it is just not updated yet. The problem is that to properly update the data, you have to take lock on the workspace (otherwise you might trying to read markers data for marker that is being deleted at same time), and that lock is likely held by the build.