Eclipse Equinox

From a code point of view, Eclipse Equinox is an implementation of the OSGi R6 core framework specification, a set of bundles that implement various optional OSGi services and other infrastructure for running OSGi-based systems.

More generally, the goal of the Equinox project is to be a first class OSGi community and foster the vision of Eclipse as a landscape of bundles. As part of this, it is responsible for developing and delivering the OSGi framework implementation used for all of Eclipse. In addition. the project is open to:

• Implementation of all aspects of the OSGi specification (including the EEG, MEG and VEG work)
• Investigation and research related to future versions of OSGi specifications and related runtime issues
• Development of non-standard infrastructure deemed to be essential to the running and management of OSGi-based systems
• Implementation of key framework services and extensions needed for running Eclipse (e.g., the Eclipse Adaptor, Extension registry) and deemed generally useful to people using OSGi.

As part of the RT project, the Equinox OSGi code is managed by the RT PMC. There is a close binding however to the Eclipse project and its PMC. Equinox, as the base for all of Eclipse, ships with all the major releases. The various other bundles developed here may ship independently and on different schedules.