What is Eclipse doing when it says that it's updating indexes?

Question

When I load up a workspace (for Android Java development), Eclipse says in the status bar that it's updating indexes. The Progress tab reports that it's hitting maven.org.

I read up on Maven - seems like a build manager. What I don't understand is why my Android workspace needs it or why it's hitting the server in the cloud. Do I need it? If not, how do I safely remove it?

Solution

This is a general step that happens when m2e/m2eclipse (Maven integration for Eclipse) is installed, whether projects are actively using it or not.

This step can be disabled through the Eclipse preferences: Window / Preferences / Maven / "Download repository index updates on startup". This option is on the main "Maven" preference page (not a child page). Just uncheck the box to prevent this from happening.

The file that this is downloading is an index of all the available dependencies available in the Maven central repository for use in Maven-enabled projects, allowing them to be easily chosen and searched against within the Eclipse UI. It is mainly a user convenience, and isn't mandatory.