fail to open eclipse when I previously configure one project with Java 11 jre

Issue

I am using version 4.7.3 of Eclipse. I am on a MAC. Until yesterday, all my project were configured with Java 8. Yesterday, I configured only one project with Java 11 jre. Today, when I tried to open Eclipse, I had the following error

!SESSION 2020-12-05 10:08:55.574 -----------------------------------------------
eclipse.buildId=4.7.3.M20180330-0640
java.version=11.0.9
java.vendor=Oracle Corporation
BootLoader constants: OS=macosx, ARCH=x86_64, WS=cocoa, NL=fr_FR
Framework arguments:  -product org.eclipse.epp.package.jee.product -keyring /Users/admin/.eclipse_keyring
Command-line arguments:  -os macosx -ws cocoa -arch x86_64 -product org.eclipse.epp.package.jee.product -keyring /Users/admin/.eclipse_keyring

!ENTRY org.eclipse.core.net 1 0 2020-12-05 10:08:59.662
!MESSAGE System property http.nonProxyHosts has been set to local|*.local|169.254/16|*.169.254/16 by an external source. This value will be overwritten using the values from the preferences

!ENTRY org.eclipse.core.resources 2 10035 2020-12-05 10:09:05.489
!MESSAGE The workspace exited with unsaved changes in the previous session; refreshing workspace to recover changes.

!ENTRY org.eclipse.osgi 4 0 2020-12-05 10:09:06.389
!MESSAGE Application error
!STACK 1
org.eclipse.e4.core.di.InjectionException: java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: javax/annotation/PostConstruct
    at org.eclipse.e4.core.internal.di.InjectorImpl.internalMake(InjectorImpl.java:410)
    at org.eclipse.e4.core.internal.di.InjectorImpl.make(InjectorImpl.java:318)
    at org.eclipse.e4.core.contexts.ContextInjectionFactory.make(ContextInjectionFactory.java:162)
    at org.eclipse.e4.ui.internal.workbench.swt.E4Application.createDefaultHeadlessContext(E4Application.java:491)
    at org.eclipse.e4.ui.internal.workbench.swt.E4Application.createDefaultContext(E4Application.java:505)
    at org.eclipse.e4.ui.internal.workbench.swt.E4Application.createE4Workbench(E4Application.java:204)
    at org.eclipse.ui.internal.Workbench.lambda$3(Workbench.java:614)
    at org.eclipse.core.databinding.observable.Realm.runWithDefault(Realm.java:336)
    at org.eclipse.ui.internal.Workbench.createAndRunWorkbench(Workbench.java:594)
    at org.eclipse.ui.PlatformUI.createAndRunWorkbench(PlatformUI.java:148)
    at org.eclipse.ui.internal.ide.application.IDEApplication.start(IDEApplication.java:151)
    at org.eclipse.equinox.internal.app.EclipseAppHandle.run(EclipseAppHandle.java:196)
    at org.eclipse.core.runtime.internal.adaptor.EclipseAppLauncher.runApplication(EclipseAppLauncher.java:134)
    at org.eclipse.core.runtime.internal.adaptor.EclipseAppLauncher.start(EclipseAppLauncher.java:104)
    at org.eclipse.core.runtime.adaptor.EclipseStarter.run(EclipseStarter.java:388)
    at org.eclipse.core.runtime.adaptor.EclipseStarter.run(EclipseStarter.java:243)
    at java.base/jdk.internal.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    at java.base/jdk.internal.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:62)
    at java.base/jdk.internal.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
    at java.base/java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:566)
    at org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.Main.invokeFramework(Main.java:653)
    at org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.Main.basicRun(Main.java:590)
    at org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.Main.run(Main.java:1499)
Caused by: java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: javax/annotation/PostConstruct
    at org.eclipse.e4.core.internal.di.InjectorImpl.inject(InjectorImpl.java:124)
    at org.eclipse.e4.core.internal.di.InjectorImpl.internalMake(InjectorImpl.java:399)
    ... 22 more
Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: javax.annotation.PostConstruct cannot be found by org.eclipse.e4.core.di_1.6.100.v20170421-1418
    at org.eclipse.osgi.internal.loader.BundleLoader.findClassInternal(BundleLoader.java:433)
    at org.eclipse.osgi.internal.loader.BundleLoader.findClass(BundleLoader.java:395)
    at org.eclipse.osgi.internal.loader.BundleLoader.findClass(BundleLoader.java:387)
    at org.eclipse.osgi.internal.loader.ModuleClassLoader.loadClass(ModuleClassLoader.java:150)
    at java.base/java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:521)
    ... 24 more

Here is the eclipse.ini file

-startup
../Eclipse/plugins/org.eclipse.equinox.launcher_1.4.0.v20161219-1356.jar
--launcher.library
../Eclipse/plugins/org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.cocoa.macosx.x86_64_1.1.551.v20171108-1834
-product
org.eclipse.epp.package.jee.product
-showsplash
org.eclipse.epp.package.common
--launcher.defaultAction
openFile
--launcher.defaultAction
openFile
--launcher.appendVmargs
-vmargs
-Dosgi.requiredJavaVersion=1.8
[email protected]/eclipse-workspace
-XX:+UseG1GC
-XX:+UseStringDeduplication
--add-modules=ALL-SYSTEM
-XstartOnFirstThread
-Dorg.eclipse.swt.internal.carbon.smallFonts
-Dosgi.requiredJavaVersion=1.8
-Xms2048m
-Xmx6g
--add-modules=ALL-SYSTEM
-Xdock:icon=../Resources/Eclipse.icns
-XstartOnFirstThread
-Dorg.eclipse.swt.internal.carbon.smallFonts
-javaagent:/Applications/Eclipse.app/Contents/Eclipse/lombok.jar

I read several post about this error, but none resolved this issue

Solution

Your Eclipse is trying to run using the Java 11 installation, but 4.7.3 is too old to work with Java 11.

You can upgrade to the current Eclipse 2020-09 (4.17) (soon to be 2020-12) which can run with Java 11 (in fact it requires Java 11 or later).

Or you can edit the eclipse.ini and add a -vm setting to specify the older Java 8.

On macOS the eclipse.ini is in the Eclipse.app - /Applications/Eclipse.app/Contents/Eclipse/eclipse.ini

Answered By - greg-449