Updating a running infocenter from the command line

In addition to the start and shutdown commands, the infocenter supports set of command for invoking update manager operations in running eclipse. You can install, update, enable, disable features, or list installed features, or features available on an update site, or adding an extension site to the running infocenter. In effect, you can change set of running documentation plug-ins without a need for shutting the infocenter down or restarting it.

Start infocenter as explained here. If you are running minimal set of plug-ins, add org.eclipse.update.core plug-in to the list of plug-ins before launching infocenter using the start command.
Launch infocenter update commands as follows, where [ ] means optional argument and arguments in italics must be provided by the user.
After performing updates as needed, apply the changes by issuing the apply command as the last step. It reflects the changes in the current session. If you do not call apply command, the changes will take effect the next time infocenter is started.

Installing a feature from a remote site:
java -cp plugins/org.eclipse.help.base_3.1.0.jar org.eclipse.help.standalone.Infocenter
    -command install
    -featureId feature_id
    -version version
    -from remote_site_url
    [-to target_site_dir]

Example: java -cp plugins/org.eclipse.help.base_3.1.0.jar org.eclipse.help.standalone.Infocenter -command install -from http://dev.eclipse.org/viewcvs/index.cgi/%7Echeckout%7E/platform-update-home/optionalSite/ -featureId com.example.root -version 1.0.0


Updating an existing feature or all features:
java -cp plugins/org.eclipse.help.base_3.1.0.jar org.eclipse.help.standalone.Infocenter
    -command update
    [-featureId feature_id ]
    [-version version ]

Enabling (configuring) a specified feature:
java -cp plugins/org.eclipse.help.base_3.1.0.jar org.eclipse.help.standalone.Infocenter
    -command enable
    -featureId feature_id
    -version version
    [-to target_site_dir]

Disabling (unconfiguring) a specified feature:
java -cp plugins/org.eclipse.help.base_3.1.0.jar org.eclipse.help.standalone.Infocenter
    -command disable
    -featureId feature_id
    -version version
    [-to target_site_dir]

Uninstalling a specified feature:
java -cp plugins/org.eclipse.help.base_3.1.0.jar org.eclipse.help.standalone.Infocenter
    -command uninstall
    -featureId feature_id
    -version version
    [-to target_site_dir]

In all the above commands where the -to target_site_dir is specified, corresponding configured target site at given directory will be used. If it is not specified, then the default local product site is used.

If you only need to verify if the operation would succeed, in the above commands, (i.e. it satisfies the constraints), without actually performing it, then add -verifyOnly=true to the list of arguments.

Searching a remote site, listing all available features for install:
java -cp plugins/org.eclipse.help.base_3.1.0.jar org.eclipse.help.standalone.Infocenter
    -command search
    -from remote_site_url

Listing installed features:
java -cp plugins/org.eclipse.help.base_3.1.0.jar org.eclipse.help.standalone.Infocenter
    -command listFeatures
    -from local_site_dir

The features are listed as:
Site: site url
  Feature: id version enabled (or disabled)


Adding a local site with more features:
java -cp plugins/org.eclipse.help.base_3.1.0.jar org.eclipse.help.standalone.Infocenter
    -command addSite
    -from local_site_dir

Removing a local site:
java -cp plugins/org.eclipse.help.base_3.1.0.jar org.eclipse.help.standalone.Infocenter
    -command removeSite
    -to local_site_dir

Applying the changes:
java -cp plugins/org.eclipse.help.base_3.1.0.jar org.eclipse.help.standalone.Infocenter
    -command apply