This feature has been added in CDT 6 (Final build due June 15th 2009). You can download the final release candidate from builds page: download.eclipse.org/tools/cdt/builds/6.0.0/.
Using a release of Eclipse 3.5 + CDT 6, you can import, build and clean-build projects and the workspace using the following options sent to Eclipse at the command line:
eclipse -nosplash
-application org.eclipse.cdt.managedbuilder.core.headlessbuild
-import {[uri:/]/path/to/project}
-build {project_name | all}
-cleanBuild {projec_name | all}
On Windows, use eclipsec.exe instead of eclipse.exe to have build output written to stdout/stderr and so that the call blocks until completion.
The ‘-application‘ switch instructs Eclipse to run the CDT headless builder rather than starting the workbench. The other switches can be used individually or together. This means you can checkout a project using a shell script of your own, ‘-import‘ it into a workspace, and ‘-build‘ it using the Managedbuilder’s headless builder.
Use the ‘-data‘ switch to specify the workspace to use, which can be an empty temporary directory, see the runtime documentation for other switches supported by the platform runtime:
help.eclipse.org/galileo/index.jsp?topic=/org.eclipse.platform.doc.isv/reference/misc/runtime-options.html
See bug 186847 comment 24 and onwards for more detail on the committed functionality.