Restarting an app in Eclipse

In Eclipse 4.1 open: windows->Preferences->keys

in the filter text type: terminate and relaunch

In the binding add your binding (i use shift-F5)

For "when" select "In Windows"

This will do it in single shorcut for you.

Or install relaunch plugin:

https://bitbucket.org/mantis78/relaunch-plugin/wiki/Home

which will enable you to restart anywhere

If you use "build automatically", there is a good chance that your changes are applied on the running program, on the fly. As such, most changes will be effective directly without a need to restart.

If there is a structural difference and Eclipse can't inject the new code (for example if you change anonymous classes, or inheritance patterns), then you will be prompted with a dialog inviting you to restart the application in one click:

Exceptions are when you change the value of a static variable (or of the initialization of a class that won't be executed again until you restart the application). In this case indeed, you will need to restart explicitly with another method.