Q1

The GroupId, ArtifactId, and Version are a set of co-ordinates (collectively known as GAV) that Maven uses to identify dependencies and plugins. The group is a means of associating multiple artifacts together, and the artifact is the individual component name. In OSGi and Eclipse builds, the group is typically the first few segments of the bundle name, and the artifact is the bundle name. The version follows the same syntax as the bundle's version, except that .qualifier is replaced with -SNAPSHOT.

Q2

The four types are pom (used for the parent), eclipse-plugin (for plug-ins), eclipse-feature, (for features) and eclipse-repository (for update sites and products)

Q3

Version numbers can be updated with mvn org.eclipse.tycho:tycho-versions-plugin:set-version -DnewVersion=version.number. Note that while mvn version:set exists, it will not update the plug-in versions, if chosen.

Q4

JAR files are signed to ensure that the contents of the JAR file have not been modified after creation. Eclipse looks at these JAR files at run-time to ensure that they are not modified, and warns if they are unsigned or if the signatures are invalid. The standard JDK tool, jarsigner is used to sign and verify JAR files; the JDK tool, keytool is used to manipulate keypairs.

Q5

A simple HTTP server can be launched using the command python -m SimpleHTTPServer. In Python 3.0, the command is python3 -m http.server.

Q6

Eclipse features are typically published in the Eclipse Marketplace at http://marketplace.eclipse.org. This includes both open source and commercial plug-ins.