Usually if I want to refresh a project (or folder, Working Set, …) in eclipse I just select the project and hit F5. Sometimes however nothing happens after hitting F5. When I then right-click the project I see in the context menu the option Refresh and not Refresh... (F5).
So for some reason the current state or such of the project does not allow F5 to refresh. I have this issue now in Indigo but this was already there in at least the 2 previous versions of eclipse.
Is this a bug or is there a (valid) reason why F5 is sometimes not available?
My guess would be that the F5 key is mapped to multiple actions, where “Refresh” has the lowest priority. You can see the mapping under Preferences > General > Keys
By default F5 is mapped to “Refresh” and “Step into” while debugging, there can be more mappings depending on which plugins you use.
But in another note:
Even if the context menu lists F5 as shortcuts, refreshing often doesn’t work for me that way (especially when I have an ‘out-of-sync’ error from CVS). I got used to rightclick refresh my project as it always works…