Assigning a keyboard shortcut for a specific Eclipse build configuration

I was able to put together specific steps based on splintor’s thread and get this working (I also added a loop at the top that finds any existing launch with the same name and terminates it, effectively making this a “restart” macro):

To assign keyboard shortcuts to specific Eclipse launch configurations, perform the following steps:

• Install https://sourceforge.net/projects/practicalmacro/, which you
  can inside Eclipse via Help->Software Updates:
  http://puremvcnotificationviewer.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/PracticallyMacroGoogleUpdateSite

• Restart Eclipse and open Eclipse Preferences. You will have a new
  section called “Practically Macro Options”, expand that section.

• Click on “Editor Macro Definitions”

• Click on “new…”

• In the list of available commands, scroll down to “Editor Macro script (Beanshell)”,
  select it and then click “Add->”

• When the script editor pops up, add the following code to the existing code:

  import org.eclipse.debug.core.DebugPlugin;
  import org.eclipse.debug.core.ILaunchConfiguration;
  import org.eclipse.debug.core.ILaunch;
  import org.eclipse.debug.ui.DebugUITools;
      try
      {
        // Terminate process if it already exists from a previous launch 
        org.eclipse.debug.core.ILaunch[] allLaunches=DebugPlugin.getDefault().getLaunchManager().getLaunches();
        for (ILaunch l : allLaunches)
        {              
          if (l.getLaunchConfiguration().getName().equals("YOUR CONFIG NAME HERE"))
          {
            console.write("terminating launch: " );
            console.writeln(l.getLaunchConfiguration().getName());
            l.terminate();
            break; 
          }
        }
  
          org.eclipse.debug.core.ILaunchConfiguration[] allConfigurations=DebugPlugin.getDefault().getLaunchManager().getLaunchConfigurations();
          for (ILaunchConfiguration config : allConfigurations) {
              if (config.getName().equals("YOUR CONFIG NAME HERE"))
              {
                  DebugUITools.launch(config, "debug");
                  break;
              }
          }
      } catch (CoreException e) {
          e.printStackTrace();
      }
      finally{}
  

• Note line 11 that checks the configuration name, replace with whatever you want

• Also note DebugUITools.launch command on line 15, you can pass either “run” or “debug”

• In the “Macro info” section at the bottom of this dialog, specify a macro name

• IMPORTANT!: If you want to be able to see this macro in the standard Eclipse key binding dialog, you need to assign an id. I started with 1…

• Click OK

• Expand the “General” section and click on “Keys”

• You can now search the possible key bindings for your new macro’s name and assign it to any key you want.

• NOTE: After assigning a key I often had to close and restart Eclipse before the key binding was respected.