How to set JAVA_HOME environment variable on macOS?

9
votes

According to this mobilefirst tutorial, it mentioned:

You must have the JAVA_HOME environment variable set to your JDK directory.

For example:

Mac OSX: /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.7.0_67.jdk/Contents/Home

I've added this 2 lines in .bash_profile:

export JAVA_HOME=`/usr/libexec/java_home -v 1.8`
export PATH=$PATH:$JAVA_HOME/Contents/Commands

Is this correct?

Thanks.

4
bashmacosjava-home
Did you follow the steps?: Download (1) and install (4) the packages? Especially in (5) "log out from the OS, and then log back in" - superbob
miss out number 5 =.='' thank you very much - user1872384
Possible duplicate of Where is JAVA_HOME on macOS Mojave (10.14) to Lion (10.7)? - Martin Choraine
$ vim .bash_profile export JAVA_HOME=/System/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/1.6.0.jdk/Contents/Home $ source .bash_profile $ echo $JAVA_HOME /System/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/1.6.0.jdk/Contents/Home - Shomu

4 Answers

11
votes

in .bash_profile:

export JAVA_HOME=/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.xx/Contents/Home
8
votes

Adding the below answer to help those who are looking for step by step instructions on how to setup Java_Home on a Mac.

  1. Determine whether Java is installed by using the command below:

    which java

You will something like this - /usr/bin/java

  1. Next Step will be to determine the version of Java Installed by using the command below:

    java -version

You will see something like java version "1.8.0_131"

  1. Next step will be to get the location where the Java is installed:

    cd /Library/Java

  2. Under the Java folder, select the folder with the version that was displayed earlier:

    /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_131.jdk/Contents/Home

  3. Next check if Java_Home is setup to the correct location:

    echo $JAVA_HOME

It will result in blank output if it is not already setup. If it returns the location, check if it points to the correct folder.

  1. You can add or update the Java_Home using the below commands: 

    vi ~/.bash_profile

Navigate to the end of the file by pressing "Shift + g". Now press "i" to get to insert mode. Add the below lines in the bash_profile after replacing the path to the java home directory on your mac

    # Setting Java_Home
    export JAVA_HOME=/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_131.jdk/Contents/Home

Save this by pressing Esc followed by ":wq!"

  1. Finally open a new terminal window and test the variable is setup correctly:

    echo $JAVA_HOME

It should return the Java_Home path setup

2
votes

If your default terminal is /bin/zsh (Z Shell) like in my case, then you should set these environment variable in ~/.zshenv file with following contents:

export JAVA_HOME="$(/usr/libexec/java_home)"

Similarly, any other terminal type not mentioned above, you should set environment variable in its respective terminal env file.

After saved the content into env file, restart terminal and call following commands:

echo $JAVA_HOME

It should display the full Java path.

1
votes

Just a note to say this still works in OpenJDK version 11. As shown in the original question the java_home utility lives in /usr/libexec, which might not be on your $PATH. You can run the command directly in a terminal window, here's sample output too:

$ /usr/libexec/java_home -v 11
/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk-11.0.4.jdk/Contents/Home

And set JAVA_HOME to that value. Even better, wire your shell script's dot files as suggested in the original question by @user1872384, because that way your environment automatically keeps up with JDK upgrades as you install them.