Close a project when its .project file is deleted

[vogella]

When the .project file disappears, for example after switching to a git branch that no longer contains the project, the workspace kept the project open and silently wrote the description back to disk at the next snapshot, save or close, leaving a dirty working tree (#1074).

A refresh that finds .project deleted, and deleting the file through the workspace, now close the project instead, and closing or saving no longer recreates a missing description file. The project can be reopened once the file is back, just like a project with a missing description on startup. A project refresh closes the project before visiting any member, since deleting a member with linked resources or filters writes the description back to disk, and a refresh canceled after the description file left the workspace tree would otherwise leave the project open with nothing left to rediscover the deletion.

A project move whose content could only be moved partially now refreshes the destination after the tree has been moved, instead of refreshing the source before. The tree always ends up under the destination name, so the old source refresh described the destination with the leftovers of the source and dropped moved files and their markers; it would now also close the project because its .project is gone. The destination refresh keeps the moved resources with their markers and trims whatever was never copied.

Code that deletes every member of a project including .project and keeps using it now sees a closed project; five tests in this repository were adjusted accordingly. The full org.eclipse.core.tests.resources suite passes locally.

Fixes #1074

[github-actions]

Test Results

    54 files  +  3      54 suites  +3   57m 29s ⏱️ + 2m 31s
 4 823 tests + 12   4 801 ✅ + 13   22 💤 ±0  0 ❌  - 1 
12 360 runs  +297  12 207 ✅ +298  153 💤 ±0  0 ❌  - 1 

Results for commit 3e0806b. ± Comparison against base commit 6e4cd9b.

♻️ This comment has been updated with latest results.

[Copilot]

🔵 Needs a closer look

It changes core project lifecycle, persistence, refresh, and partial-move recovery behavior requiring final human validation.

Pull request overview

Closes open Eclipse workspace projects when their .project file disappears, preventing saves from recreating deleted metadata.

Changes:

• Detects .project deletion during resource deletion and refresh, then closes the project.
• Stops save/close operations from recreating missing descriptions.
• Preserves partially moved project content and updates affected tests.

File summaries

File	Description
Snapshot2Test.java	Retains .project during snapshot setup.
TestBug12575.java	Updates cross-session deletion expectations.
IWorkspaceTest.java	Verifies saves do not recreate .project.
ISynchronizerTest.java	Retains project descriptions during synchronization testing.
IProjectTest.java	Tests explicit description rewriting.
IProjectDescriptionTest.java	Covers deletion, refresh, close, reopen, and failed moves.
LocalSyncTest.java	Expects refresh to close deleted projects.
SaveManager.java	Removes automatic project-description repair during saves.
ResourceTree.java	Avoids source refresh after partial project moves.
Resource.java	Closes projects after workspace .project deletion.
Project.java	Extracts reusable internal project-closing logic.
File.java	Centralizes .project identification.
RefreshLocalVisitor.java	Tracks projects whose descriptions disappeared.
FileSystemResourceManager.java	Closes tracked projects after refresh.

Review details

• Files reviewed: 14/14 changed files
• Comments generated: 0
• Review effort level: Balanced

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[vogella]

@iloveeclipse To your question: The code was done without bug reference AFAICS. John Arthorne on 2002-03-16 in commit f64fa15 ("Moved project description file to content area"), the Eclipse 2.0 change that moved .project out of .metadata into the project folder

[vogella]

Any additional concerns @iloveeclipse?

[vogella]

Planning to merge later today.

[vogella]

After a failed or partial content move the project is refreshed at the destination once the tree has been moved, so the refresh still happens when the exception has nothing to do with .project. testMoveWithUndeletableSourceContent covers it.

[mickaelistria]

FWIW, I think what's implemented here collides somehow with what I consider as more desirable in #202 . The current change makes that a project cannot be open at all without a .project, while the 2nd asks that any folder could be configured as an open project without a .project necessarily.

[vogella]

FWIW, I think what's implemented here collides somehow with what I consider as more desirable in #202 . The current change makes that a project cannot be open at all without a .project, while the 2nd asks that any folder could be configured as an open project without a .project necessarily.

Once or if someone starts working on #202 we are revisit. IMHO the concept of .project is deeply embedded into Eclipse and will be hard to be removed. But I also would like to see this change.