What is the difference between Build Path and Include Path in Eclipse PDT?

Question

What is the difference between an assembly path and an Include Path in an Eclipse PDT?

Answer 1

Short answer: keep the list of source folders at both levels (as Eclipse takes care of this by default).

Longer answer:

The simple / straightforward part: the include path parameters in Eclipse PDT is a list of paths / projects / libraries that will be used as the inclusion path when starting your project (for example, as a PHP CLI application) from Eclipse.

include path also partially (see below), which is used to support the content (or after code completion). For example, if you have any external libraries or a related project in your inclusion path settings, you will have auxiliary resources, pop-ups, etc. About functions and classes from these resources.

This is not entirely true for items on the source tab of the inclusion path. They are only considered for the path to enabling the runtime (when starting the application from eclipse) and for supporting content in include and require PHP expressions.

For all other useful tools for working (support for content in normal PHP code, doc popups, click, ...) you need to identify these sources in the build path (as a).

As I understand it, the build path is the "fork" of the source elements of the include path in PDT 2.0 (see http://www.eclipse.org/pdt/release-notes/pdt2_0.php ) as an optimization function to speed up the build process.

Therefore, if you are not working on a complex / large project with build speed problems, this is probably the best / least confusing to keep the original elements in the assembly and include the path the same way.

Answer 2

A build path is a set of paths that the IDE will use to parse code, display errors, return automatic completion methods, etc.

Include path is a path that is similar to enabling php runtime configuration path.

If you have code that needs to be executed but don’t want to see it in the IDE, you can only define it in the inclusion path.

Due to reasons, all the paths defined in the build paths will be added to enable the path automatically at runtime / debugging, in other words, the build path is the include path.