Update seven years later (Eclipse Neon 4.6)
Eclipse now has an Automatic Save of dirty editors
The autosave option is disabled by default.
A new autosave preference page (Preferences > General > Editors > Autosave) is available and allows to enable/disable the autosave and change the interval of autosave.
The countdown is reset on keyboard activity, mouse click, or when a popup is displayed (e.g. content assist, preference page, ...).
Original answer (2009)
The OP IAdapter added in the comments:
I bet plugin like I describe exists.
... and you are right!
Eclipse plugin saveDirtyEditor should do just what you need.
Copy the SaveDirtyEditors_1.0.2.jar in your plugin directory.
You will get a new preference page under
General > Editors > Text Editors > Save Dirty Editors
, allowing you to save dirty files like 'myfile.java' under 'myfile.java.snapshot' every 30 seconds (can be less if you want).
Without additional plugin, though, Eclipse does not support natively that feature.
The closest could be:
Window > Preferences > type "build"
> General > Workspace > [x] Save automatically before build
That way, each time you hit CTRL+B for actually building your sources, they would be saved.
But I realize this is not exactly what you are after.
Beware your option would not be very efficient with the "build automatically" option activated... (that would trigger too much builds)
Again, without achieving exactly what you are looking for, you also have:
Run/Debug > Launching > Save required dirty editors before launching
Run/Debug > Launching > [x] Build (if required) before launching
Note: the difference between IntelliJ IDEA and eclipse is the "compile on save" feature:
As mentioned in the IDEA FAQ:
Q:
Can I enable "compile on save" in IntelliJ IDEA?
IntelliJ IDEA currently doesn't support this feature.
However there is an "Eclipse-mode" plug-in which provides similar functionality, so we suggest you to try this plug-in.
Note that by default IntelliJ IDEA saves the files for you, so you don't have to press the Ctrl+S shortcut frequently like you need to do in other IDEs.
However, with Eclipse, the "build on save" is activated by default, hence the absence of that particular feature.
