In Defining provisional API in Equinox I discussed how to mark your API as internal / provisional. But what if your plugin has a close friend which should be allowed to use this API without restrictions? Even in the plugin world some plugins are sometimes closer to each other.

This can be achived by the x-friends directive. Which can be added via the some editor which added the x-internal flag.

This should result in the following MANIFEST.MF.

Manifest-Version: 1.0
Bundle-ManifestVersion: 2
Bundle-Name: Provider
Bundle-SymbolicName: de.vogella.osgi.xinternal.provider
Bundle-Version: 1.0.0.qualifier
Bundle-RequiredExecutionEnvironment: JavaSE-1.6
Export-Package: de.vogella.osgi.xinternal.provider;x-friends:="de.vogella.osgi.xinternal.consumer"

By this setting the package de.vogella.osgi.xinternal.provider can be used by the plugin “de.vogella.osgi.xinternal.consumer” without restrictions but is mark as “x-internal” for all other plugins.

Choose your friends wisely.

In Defining provisional API in Equinox I discussed how to mark your API as internal / provisional. But what if your plugin has a close friend which should be allowed to use this API without restrictions? Even in the plugin world some plugins are sometimes closer to each other. This can be achived by ...

Filed under: Eclipse, OSGi

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