Changes in 6.3.0

Bnd/Bndtools 6.3.0

See the Release section of the README for where to find Bnd/Bndtools.

Bndtools "Bnd Bundle Path" class path container now supports negation in the packages attribute of -buildpath and -testpath clauses. Negated packages are marked NON_ACCESSIBLE in Eclipse.

Bnd adds decoration support, with unused literal inclusion, for the following instructions:
- -conditionalpackage
- -privatepackage
- -includepackage
- -includeresource
The -privatepackage instruction is now also a merged instruction.
The path instructions, such as -buildpath, -testpath, and -runbundles, which already support decoration, now include unused literals.
Unused literal inclusion in decoration now allows the decoration to add additional entries to the beginning or the end of the decorated item.
Instruction decoration now supports removal of attributes and non-overwriting of attributes. Prefixing the attribute name with ! means removal. Prefixing the attribute name with ~ means do not overwrite an existing attribute value.

The styling of the documentation has added a search bar and indication of when macros and instructions are in effect.

Bndtools is built to run on Eclipse 2020-06 (4.16) or later. So Bndtools may not run on older versions of Eclipse.
Bndtools m2e is built to run on Eclipse m2e 1.16.0 or later. So Bndtools m2e may not run on older versions of Eclipse m2e.
The Bnd Maven plugins require a minimum of Maven 3.3.9.
The Bnd Gradle plugins require a minimum of Gradle 6.7 for Java 8 to Java 15, Gradle 7.0 for Java 16, and Gradle 7.3 for Java 17.
The Bnd Gradle plugins and tasks underwent a large update in 6.0 to modernize their implementations and prepare for Gradle 7 and newer Gradle idioms. All Bnd Gradle task properties are now Gradle Properties and should generally be set using an assignment in your build script. A number of previously deprecated task properties have been removed. The conventions are now deprecated and replaced by extensions.

Eclipse m2e has a bug which can result in build looping. If you experience this, update Eclipse m2e to 1.18.2 or later which seems to have fixed the issue.
Windows 10 users: Windows 10 Defender significantly slows down Eclipse, reason being Windows 10 Defender scanning the JAR files. The problem has been reported to Microsoft here. Until then, a workaround to this problem is to add Eclipse root directory to Windows 10 Defender’s exclusion list, detailed steps are shared here.

Note: This is not just an Eclipse issue on Windows 10.

See also Bnd Tips for Windows users.