Cycle in Eclipse

Question

If I open two Java projects in Eclipse which depend on each other, I have to add dependencies between these two projects in the Build Path (Properties -> Java build path). This works fine for one way, but why doesn't allow Eclipse to set the dependencies vice versa? The following error message occurs:

A cycle was detected in the build path of project 'A'

and

A cycle was detected in the build path of project 'B'

I know what's causing this error but i wonder why exactly this isn't allowed. Thanks.

Answer 1

That type of circular reference can't be resolved. A needs B to run and B needs A to run. But having cycles between projects like this is a bad thing. If they both depend on each other, then they probably shouldn't be separate projects since they can't be deployed separately anyway.

Answer 2

Well, if you need to have a cycle you can allow it by changing from error to warning in Window->Preferences->Java->Compiler->Building->Build path problems -> Circular dependencies.

But I still think that is a bad desing.