Eclipse count lines of code

Install the Eclipse Metrics Plugin. To create a HTML report (with optional XML and CSV) right-click a project -> Export -> Other -> Metrics.

You can adjust the Lines of Code metrics by ignoring blank and comment-only lines or exclude Javadoc if you want. To do this check the tab at Preferences -> Metrics -> LoC.

That's it. There is no special option to exclude curly braces {}.

The plugin offers an alternative metric to LoC called Number of Statements. This is what the author has to say about it:

This metric represents the number of statements in a method. I consider it a more robust measure than Lines of Code since the latter is fragile with respect to different formatting conventions.

Edit:

After you clarified your question, I understand that you need a view for real-time metrics violations, like compiler warnings or errors. You also need a reporting functionality to create reports for your boss. The plugin I described above is for reporting because you have to export the metrics when you want to see them.

There's always the "brute force":

1. Search->File

2. Type the following in "Containing text" -> ^.*$. Then check the "Regular Expression" checkbox

3. Type the following in "File name patterns" -> *.java

4. Click "Search"

5. Check the number of matches in the "Search" Tab.