sdkman and $PATH in Linux - java

After installing sdkman and let it install java temurin 8 and 17 and setting use to java 8, $JAVA_HOME nicely pointed to the current candidate.
But $PATH and java -version still point to the original /usr/lib/jvm/java-17-openjdk-amd64/bin. Do I have to manually modify $PATH, each time I change the current java version?
I changed the 'use' version, and $JAVA_HOME changed appropriately, but $PATH and java -version did not change.

Related

Endless trouble setting JAVA_HOME via jenv for use in IntelliJ

I have a seemingly-common problem, but after scouring through the many posts (here and otherwise) of people experiencing the problem of not being able to properly set the JAVA_HOME path, no proposed solutions are solving my problem.
I recently installed Java via Homebrew (the version was Java16), but I needed to install Java8 for use in a specific IntelliJ project. I installed Java8 via Homewbrew as well and proceeded to also install jenv in order to manage the now-multiple versions of Java on my system.
In IntelliJ > Project Structure, I was able to specify the desired SDK and work in Java8—all was well up until here.
However, I subsequently needed to install Java14, which is when it all fell apart.
I followed the same procedures as when adding Java8, but now IntelliJ complains ERROR: JAVA_HOME is set to an invalid directory: /Users/user/.jenv/versions/system when any SDK is specified. Specifically, this error is thrown when attempting to build a .jar file via gradle by executing gradle jar
What I have done to attempt a fix (not explicitly in this order, and some commands executed multiple times):
jenv enable-plugin export
echo 'export PATH="$HOME/.jenv/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bash_profile
echo 'eval "$(jenv init -)"' >> ~/.bash_profile
jenv add $(/usr/libexec/java_home)
jenv add /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/adoptopenjdk-14.jdk/Contents/Home/
jenv add /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/adoptopenjdk-84.jdk/Contents/Home/
When this failed to work, I opened IntelliJ directly from Terminal, in order to inherit the bash_profile variables (a proposed solution I have encountered a few times).
Additionally, I also navigated to the porject's folder in Terminal and issued jenv java 14 in order to implement a folder-level specification.
Below are the results of certain Terminal executions that may be informative:
javac -version
javac 16.0.1
java -version
openjdk version "16.0.1" 2021-04-20
OpenJDK Runtime Environment Homebrew (build 16.0.1+0)
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM Homebrew (build 16.0.1+0, mixed mode, sharing)
which java
/Users/jzwi/.jenv/shims/java
ls -1 /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines
adoptopenjdk-14.jdk
adoptopenjdk-8.jdk
openjdk.jdk
/usr/libexec/java_home -V
Matching Java Virtual Machines (4):
16.0.1, x86_64: "OpenJDK 16.0.1" /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/openjdk.jdk/Contents/Home
15.0.3, x86_64: "Zulu 15.32.15" /Users/user/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/azul-15.0.3/Contents/Home
14.0.2, x86_64: "AdoptOpenJDK 14" /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/adoptopenjdk-14.jdk/Contents/Home
1.8.0_292, x86_64: "AdoptOpenJDK 8" /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/adoptopenjdk-8.jdk/Contents/Home
echo ${JAVA_HOME}
/Users/user/.jenv/versions/system
jenv version
system (set by /Users/user/.jenv/version)
jenv versions
* system (set by /Users/user/.jenv/version)
1.8
1.8.0.292
14
14.0
14.0.2
16
16.0
16.0.1
openjdk64-1.8.0.292
openjdk64-14.0.2
openjdk64-16.0.1
The first question is: should echo ${JAVA_HOME} result in system? It seems that most tutorials and explanations result in something more explicit (e.g., /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_111.jdk/Contents/Home).
If system is not the desired result, how do I fix in ways that I have not already tried?
As a last piece of information, here is what I have in my .bash_profile itself:
eval export PATH="/Users/user/.jenv/shims:${PATH}"
export JENV_SHELL=bash
export JENV_LOADED=1
unset JAVA_HOME
source '/usr/local/Cellar/jenv/0.5.4/libexec/libexec/../completions/jenv.bash'
jenv rehash 2>/dev/null
jenv refresh-plugins
jenv() {
typeset command
command="$1"
if [ "$#" -gt 0 ]; then
shift
fi
case "$command" in
enable-plugin|rehash|shell|shell-options)
eval `jenv "sh-$command" "$#"`;;
*)
command jenv "$command" "$#";;
esac
}
export PATH="$HOME/.jenv/bin:$PATH"
eval "$(jenv init -)"
The unset JAVA_HOME seems super suspicious, but I neither know what it means, how it got there, nor does commenting it out solve my problem.
Many thanks for any help !!

Java hangs on OSX when JAVA_HOME is set [duplicate]

Java is an optional package on the latest versions of macOS.
Yet once installed it appears like the JAVA_HOME environment variable is not set properly.

With the Java optional package or Oracle JDK installed,
adding one of the following lines to your ~/.bash_profile file will set the environment variable accordingly.
export JAVA_HOME="$(/usr/libexec/java_home -v 1.6)"
or
export JAVA_HOME="$(/usr/libexec/java_home -v 1.7)"
or
export JAVA_HOME="$(/usr/libexec/java_home -v 1.8)"
or simply
export JAVA_HOME="$(/usr/libexec/java_home)"
Note: If you installed openjdk on mac using brew, run sudo ln -sfn /usr/local/opt/openjdk/libexec/openjdk.jdk /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/openjdk.jdk for the above to work
Update: added -v flag based on Jilles van Gurp response.

/usr/libexec/java_home is not a directory but an executable. It outputs the currently configured JAVA_HOME and doesn't actually change it. That's what the Java Preferences app is for, which in my case seems broken and doesn't actually change the JVM correctly. It does list the 1.7 JVM but I can toggle/untoggle & drag and drop all I want there without actually changing the output of /usr/libexec/java_home.
Even after installing 1.7.0 u6 from Oracle on Lion and setting it as the default in the preferences, it still returned the apple 1.6 java home. The only fix that actually works for me is setting JAVA_HOME manually:
export JAVA_HOME=/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.7.0_06.jdk/Contents/Home/
At least this way when run from the command line it will use 1.7. /usr/libexec/java_home still insists on 1.6.
Update: Understanding Java From Command Line on OSX has a better explanation on how this works.
export JAVA_HOME=`/usr/libexec/java_home -v 1.7`
is the way to do it. Note, updating this to 1.8 works just fine.

For me, Mountain Lion 10.8.2, the solution most voted does not work.
I installed jdk 1.7 via Oracle and maven from homebrew.
My solution is from the hadoop-env.sh file of hadoop which I installed from homebrew, too.
I add the below sentence in ~/.bash_profile, and it works.
export JAVA_HOME="$(/usr/libexec/java_home)"
This solution also works for OS X Yosemite with Java 1.8 installed from Oracle.

None of the above answers helped me. I suppose all the answers are for older OS X
For OS X Yosemite 10.10, follow these steps
Use your favorite text editor to open: ~/.bash_profile
//This command will open the file using vim
$ vim ~/.bash_profile
Add the following line in the file and save it ( : followed by "x" for vim):
export JAVA_HOME=$(/usr/libexec/java_home)
Then in the terminal type the following two commands to see output:
$ source ~/.bash_profile
$ echo $JAVA_HOME
In the second line, you are updating the contents of .bash_profile file.

Update for Java 9 and some neat aliases.
In .bash_profile:
export JAVA_HOME8=`/usr/libexec/java_home --version 1.8`
export JAVA_HOME9=`/usr/libexec/java_home --version 9`
Note, that for the latest version it is 9 and not 1.9.
Set active Java:
export JAVA_HOME=$JAVA_HOME8
export PATH=$JAVA_HOME/bin:$PATH
Some additional alias to switch between the different versions:
alias j8='export JAVA_HOME=$JAVA_HOME8; export PATH=$JAVA_HOME/bin:$PATH'
alias j9='export JAVA_HOME=$JAVA_HOME9; export PATH=$JAVA_HOME/bin:$PATH'
Test in terminal:
% j8
% java -version
java version "1.8.0_121"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_121-b13)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 25.121-b13, mixed mode)
% j9
% java -version
java version "9"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 9+181)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 9+181, mixed mode)
EDIT: Update for Java 10
export JAVA_HOME10=`/usr/libexec/java_home --version 10`
alias j10='export JAVA_HOME=$JAVA_HOME10; export PATH=$JAVA_HOME/bin:$PATH'
EDIT: Update for Java 11
export JAVA_HOME11=`/usr/libexec/java_home --version 11`
alias j11='export JAVA_HOME=$JAVA_HOME11; export PATH=$JAVA_HOME/bin:$PATH'

The above didn't work for me with Amazon's EC2 tools, because it expects bin/java etc. underneath JAVA_HOME. /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Home did work.

For OS X you can do:
export JAVA_HOME=`/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/Current/Commands/java_home`

On Mac OS X Lion, to set visualgc to run, I used:
export JAVA_HOME=/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.6.0/Home

The following worked for me. I'm using ZSH on OSX Yosemite with Java 8 installed.
The following command /usr/libexec/java_home emits the path to JDK home:
/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_05.jdk/Contents/Home
In your ~/.zshrc,
export JAVA_HOME = "/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_05.jdk/Contents/Home"

for macOS Mojave 10.14.1 and JAVA 11.0.1
I set the profile as
export JAVA_HOME=$(/usr/libexec/java_home)
key in terminal this to confirm:
$JAVA_HOME/bin/java -version
java version "11.0.1" 2018-10-16 LTS
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment 18.9 (build 11.0.1+13-LTS)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM 18.9 (build 11.0.1+13-LTS, mixed mode)

A better (more upgradable) way is to use the following:
/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/CurrentJDK/Home
This should work with AWS also since it has bin underneath Home

Newer Oracle JVMs such as 1.7.0_21-b12 seem to install here:
/Library/Internet\ Plug-Ins/JavaAppletPlugin.plugin/Contents/Home

My approach is:
.bashrc
export JAVA6_HOME=`/usr/libexec/java_home -v 1.6`
export JAVA7_HOME=`/usr/libexec/java_home -v 1.7`
export JAVA_HOME=$JAVA6_HOME
# -- optional
# export PATH=$JAVA_HOME/bin:$PATH
This makes it very easy to switch between J6 and J7

I Had to explicitly set it to the exact path on my Macbook air .
Steps followed:
try to echo $JAVA_HOME (if it's set it'll show the path), if not, try to search for it using sudo find /usr/ -name *jdk
Edit the Bash p with - sudo nano ~/.bash_profile
Add the exact path to JAVA Home (with the path from step 2 above)
export JAVA_HOME=/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_144.jdk/Contents/Home
Save and exit
Check JAVA_Home using - echo $JAVA_HOME
I am running MACOS MOJAVE - 10.14.2 (18C54) on a Macbook Air with JAVA 8

OSX Yosemite, ZSH, and Java SE Runtime Environment 8, I had to:
$ sudo ln -s /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/Current/Commands /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/Current/bin
and in ~/.zshrc change JAVA_HOME to
export JAVA_HOME="/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/Current"

For Mac OS X 10.9 I installed the latest version of JRE from Oracle and then reset the JAVA_HOME to /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.7.0_45.jdk/Contents/Home.
I am sure there is a better way but this got me up and running.
hughsmac:~ hbrien$ echo $JAVA_HOME
/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.7.0_45.jdk/Contents/Home

For Java 11 (JDK 11) it can be located with the following command:
/usr/libexec/java_home -v 11

Got the same issue after I upgrade my Mac OS and following worked for me:
cmd>vi ~/.bash_profile
Add/update the line for JAVA_HOME:
export JAVA_HOME="/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.7.0_15.jdk/Contents/Home"
cmd>source ~/.bash_profile or open a new terminal
I think the jdk version might differ, so just use the version which you have under /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/

If you are in need to have multiple versions of JDK under Mac OS X (Yosemite), it might be helpful to add some scripting for automated switching between them.
What you do is to edit your ~/.bash_profile and add the following:
function setjdk() {
if [ $# -ne 0 ]; then
removeFromPath '/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Home/bin'
if [ -n "${JAVA_HOME+x}" ]; then
removeFromPath $JAVA_HOME
fi
export JAVA_HOME=`/usr/libexec/java_home -v $#`
export PATH=$JAVA_HOME/bin:$PATH
fi
}
function removeFromPath() {
export PATH=$(echo $PATH | sed -E -e "s;:$1;;" -e "s;$1:?;;")
}
setjdk 1.7
What the script does is to first remove other JDK versions in the PATH so that they won’t interfere with our new JDK version. Then it makes some clever use of /usr/libexec/java_home which is a command that lists installed JDK versions. The -v argument tells java_home to return the path of the JDK with the supplied version, for example 1.7. We also update the PATH to point to the bin directory of the newly found JAVA_HOME directory. At the end we can simply execute the function using
setjdk 1.7
which selects the latest installed JDK version of the 1.7 branch. To select a specific version you can simply execute
setjdk 1.7.0_51
instead. Run /usr/libexec/java_home -V to get more details on how to choose versions.
P.S. Do not forget to source ~/.bash_profile after you save it.

For Fish terminal users on Mac (I believe it's available on Linux as well), this should work:
set -Ux JAVA_8 (/usr/libexec/java_home --version 1.8)
set -Ux JAVA_12 (/usr/libexec/java_home --version 12)
set -Ux JAVA_HOME $JAVA_8 //or whichever version you want as default

This answer is related to Mountain Lion and not Lion. I needed to do this for the AWS Command Line Tools. According to the AWS docs, running which java returns /usr/bin/java.
So, I set JAVA_HOME=/usr in my .bashrc.
Apparently, /usr/bin/java is a symbolic link to /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/Current/Commands/java which makes it all work.
Update
As mentioned in the comment below, this JAVA_HOME value is not an ideal solution when the JAVA_HOME environment variable is to be used by things other than the AWS Command Line Tools. It works fine for the AWS Command Line Tools, though, as given in their docs.

for mac user .
java 8 should add
export JAVA_HOME=`/usr/libexec/java_home -v 1.8`
# JAVA_HOME=/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_05.jdk/Contents/Home
java 6 :
export JAVA_HOME=`/usr/libexec/java_home -v 1.6`
# JAVA_HOME=/System/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/1.6.0.jdk/Contents/Home
ref :http://qiita.com/seri_k/items/e978c1339ce51f13e297

For Mac Yosemite,
JDK 1.7.0_xx is using
$ ls -ltar /usr/bin/java
/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/Current/Commands/java
JAVA_HOME
/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.7.0_xx.jdk/Contents/Home

Anyone using AUSKEY from the Australian Tax Office (ATO) should uninstall AUSKEY.
This sorted out my JAVA_HOME issues.
It is also no longer required for MAC users. Yah!

I'm using Fish shell on High Sierra 10.13.4 and installed Java via Brew.
It's not automatically set up so to set it correctly on my system I run:
set -U JAVA_HOME (/usr/libexec/java_home)

Just set java_home of 1.8 jdk version in netbeans.conf file:
/Applications/NetBeans/NetBeans 8.2.app/Contents/Resources/NetBeans/etc/netbeans.conf
uncomment line:
netbeans_jdkhome="path/to/jdk"
and set path to your 1.8 jdk, in my case:
netbeans_jdkhome="/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_121.jdk/Contents/Home"
This approach lays you to have several jdk versions on mac os

Handy command for knowing java home and other details.
java -XshowSettings:properties -version
and to know all java homes on your mac:
/usr/libexec/java_home -V

Updating java 6 to java 7 on windows 8

My windows machine came with JRE6. I have installed JDK7. So now when I do
javac -version
it says 7, but when I do
java -version
it still defaults to 6.
I have set path to include JDK7, and correctly can now use javac (version 7) anywhere on the command line. However, there has never been a java_home set, so I set it to point to the JDK7 but still when I use java command it is using version 6.
Is there some default setting somewhere to remove?

You need set the system variable JAVA_HOME "C:\XXXX\Java\jdk1.7.0_51\bin"

How can I change Mac OS's default Java VM returned from /usr/libexec/java_home

(Wasn't sure if this should go on SU... migration is certainly an option, but more programmers read questions here, so here goes).
I am running Mac OS X 10.8.4, and I have Apple's JDK 1.6.0_51 installed as well as Oracle's JDK 1.7.0_25. I recently installed Oracle's 1.8 preview JDK for some pre-release software that requires it. Now, when I run /usr/libexec/java_home, I get this:
$ /usr/libexec/java_home -V
Matching Java Virtual Machines (4):
1.8.0, x86_64: "Java SE 8" /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0.jdk/Contents/Home
1.7.0_25, x86_64: "Java SE 7" /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.7.0_25.jdk/Contents/Home
1.6.0_51-b11-457, x86_64: "Java SE 6" /System/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/1.6.0.jdk/Contents/Home
1.6.0_51-b11-457, i386: "Java SE 6" /System/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/1.6.0.jdk/Contents/Home
Great.
However, running:
$ java -version
Returns:
java version "1.8.0-ea"
That means that the default version of Java is currently the pre-release version, which breaks some "normal" packages (in my case, VisualVM).
I can't set JAVA_HOME because launching applications ignores environment variables, even when launching from the command line (e.g. $ open /Applications/VisualVM.app).
So, is there a file I can edit where I can set my JVM ordering preferences globally?
(Please don't tell me to launch the Java Preferences Panel because that simply does not work: it does not contain anything useful and only lists one of the 4 JVMs that I have installed.)
Update:
Oracle JVMs live in /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines. Re-naming the JDK 1.8 directory to jdk1.8.0.jvm.xyz does not change anything: java_home still finds it in the right place, and running /usr/bin/java still executes the 1.8 JVM. This is not an issue with synlinks, etc.
Answers to Similar Questions
While this answer offers what amounts to a hack that will remove versions of Java from being picked up by java_home, it still does not answer this question of how java_home chooses its default and whether or not users can non-destructively set it.

I think JAVA_HOME is the best you can do. The command-line tools like java and javac will respect that environment variable, you can use /usr/libexec/java_home -v '1.7*' to give you a suitable value to put into JAVA_HOME in order to make command line tools use Java 7.
export JAVA_HOME="`/usr/libexec/java_home -v '1.7*'`"
But standard double-clickable application bundles don't use JDKs installed under /Library/Java at all. Old-style .app bundles using Apple's JavaApplicationStub will use Apple Java 6 from /System/Library/Frameworks, and new-style ones built with AppBundler without a bundled JRE will use the "public" JRE in /Library/Internet Plug-Ins/JavaAppletPlugin.plugin/Contents/Home - that's hard-coded in the stub code and can't be changed, and you can't have two different public JREs installed at the same time.
Edit: I've had a look at VisualVM specifically, assuming you're using the "application bundle" version from the download page, and this particular app is not an AppBundler application, instead its main executable is a shell script that calls a number of other shell scripts and reads various configuration files. It defaults to picking the newest JDK from /Library/Java as long as that is 7u10 or later, or uses Java 6 if your Java 7 installation is update 9 or earlier. But unravelling the logic in the shell scripts it looks to me like you can specify a particular JDK using a configuration file.
Create a text file ~/Library/Application Support/VisualVM/1.3.6/etc/visualvm.conf (replace 1.3.6 with whatever version of VisualVM you're using) containing the line
visualvm_jdkhome="`/usr/libexec/java_home -v '1.7*'`"
and this will force it to choose Java 7 instead of 8.

I've been there too and searched everywhere how /usr/libexec/java_home works but I couldn't find any information on how it determines the available Java Virtual Machines it lists.
I've experimented a bit and I think it simply executes a ls /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines and then inspects the ./<version>/Contents/Info.plist of all runtimes it finds there.
It then sorts them descending by the key JVMVersion contained in the Info.plist and by default it uses the first entry as its default JVM.
I think the only thing we might do is to change the plist: sudo vi /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0.jdk/Contents/Info.plist and then modify the JVMVersion from 1.8.0 to something else that makes it sort it to the bottom instead of the top, like !1.8.0.
Something like:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
...
<dict>
...
<key>JVMVersion</key>
<string>!1.8.0</string> <!-- changed from '1.8.0' to '!1.8.0' -->`
and then it magically disappears from the top of the list:
/usr/libexec/java_home -verbose
Matching Java Virtual Machines (3):
1.7.0_45, x86_64: "Java SE 7" /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.7.0_45.jdk/Contents/Home
1.7.0_09, x86_64: "Java SE 7" /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.7.0_09.jdk/Contents/Home
!1.8.0, x86_64: "Java SE 8" /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0.jdk/Contents/Home
Now you will need to logout/login and then:
java -version
java version "1.7.0_45"
:-)
Of course I have no idea if something else breaks now or if the 1.8.0-ea version of java still works correctly.
You probably should not do any of this but instead simply deinstall 1.8.0.
However so far this has worked for me.

I actually looked at this a little in the disassembler, since source isn't available.
/usr/bin/java and /usr/libexec/java_home both make use of JavaLaunching.framework. The JAVA_HOME environment variable is indeed checked first by /usr/bin/java and friends (but not /usr/libexec/java_home.) The framework uses the JAVA_VERSION and JAVA_ARCH envirionment variables to filter the available JVMs. So, by default:
$ /usr/libexec/java_home -V
Matching Java Virtual Machines (2):
11.0.5, x86_64: "Amazon Corretto 11" /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/amazon-corretto-11.jdk/Contents/Home
1.8.0_232, x86_64: "Amazon Corretto 8" /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/amazon-corretto-8.jdk/Contents/Home
/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/amazon-corretto-11.jdk/Contents/Home
But setting, say, JAVA_VERSION can override the default:
$ JAVA_VERSION=1.8 /usr/libexec/java_home
/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/amazon-corretto-8.jdk/Contents/Home
You can also set JAVA_LAUNCHER_VERBOSE=1 to see some additional debug logging as far as search paths, found JVMs, etc., with both /usr/bin/java and /usr/libexec/java_home.
In the past, JavaLaunching.framework actually used the preferences system (under the com.apple.java.JavaPreferences domain) to set the preferred JVM order, allowing the default JVM to be set with PlistBuddy - but as best as I can tell, that code has been removed in recent versions of macOS. Environment variables seem to be the only way (aside from editing the Info.plist in the JDK bundles themselves.)
Setting default environment variables can of course be done through your .profile or via launchd, if you need them be set at a session level.

It's actually pretty easy.
Let's say we have this in our JavaVirtualMachines folder:
jdk1.7.0_51.jdk
jdk1.8.0.jdk
Imagine that 1.8 is our default, then we just add a new folder (for example 'old') and move the default jdk folder to that new folder.
Do java -version again et voila, 1.7!

I tested "jenv" and other things like setting "JAVA_HOME" without success.
Now I ended up with following solution:
function setJava {
export JAVA_HOME="$(/usr/libexec/java_home -v $1)"
launchctl setenv JAVA_HOME $JAVA_HOME
sudo ln -nsf "$(dirname ${JAVA_HOME})/MacOS" /Library/Java/MacOS
java -version
}
(added to ~/.bashrc or ~/.bash.profile or ~/.zshrc)
And calling like that:
setJava 1.8
java_home will handle the wrong input. So you can't do something wrong.
Maven and other stuff will pick up the right version now.

It's pretty simple, if you don't mind rolling up your sleeves... /Library/Java/Home is the default for JAVA_HOME, and it's just a link that points to one of:
/System/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/1.?.?.jdk/Contents/Home
/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.?.?_??.jdk/Contents/Home
So I wanted to change my default JVM/JDK version without changing the contents of JAVA_HOME... /Library/Java/Home is the standard location for the current JVM/JDK and that's what I wanted to preserve... it seems to me to be the easiest way to change things with the least side effects.
It's actually really simple. In order to change which version of java you see with java -version, all you have to do is some version of this:
cd /Library/Java
sudo rm Home
sudo ln -s /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_60.jdk/Contents/Home ./Home
I haven't taken the time but a very simple shell script that makes use of /usr/libexec/java_home and ln to repoint the above symlink should be stupid easy to create...
Once you've changed where /Library/Java/Home is pointed... you get the correct result:
cerebro:~ magneto$ java -version
java version "1.8.0_60"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_60-b27) Java HotSpot(TM)
64-Bit Server VM (build 25.60-b23, mixed mode)

Oracle's uninstallation instructions for Java 7 worked for me.
Excerpt:
Uninstalling the JDK
To uninstall the JDK, you must have Administrator privileges and execute the remove command either as root or by using the sudo(8) tool.
Navigate to /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines and remove the directory whose name matches the following format:*
/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk<major>.<minor>.<macro[_update]>.jdk
For example, to uninstall 7u6:
% rm -rf jdk1.7.0_06.jdk

A bit late but as this is an ongoing issue with Mac OSX...
The simplest solution I found was to simply remove the OpenJDK stuff that Apple installs. Every time an update of Mac OSX arrives it gets installed and you'll need to remove it again.
This works really well if you develop apps for Google App Engine on your mac using Java. The OpenJDK does not work well and the Java version that comes with the Mac OSX Yosemite upgrade will make the Eclipse Plug-in for App Engine crash on every deployment with the helpful error: "Read timed out".

Edit: this information is for visualvm specifically, not for any other java app
As mentioned by others, you need to modify the visualvm.conf
For the latest version of JvisualVM 1.3.6 on Mac, the install directories have changed.
It is currently in
/Applications/VisualVM.app/Contents/Resources/visualvm/etc/visualvm.conf.
However this may depend on where you have installed VisualVM. The easiest way to find where your VisualVM is to start it, and then look at the process using:
ps -ef | grep VisualVM
You will see something like:
... -Dnetbeans.dirs=/Applications/VisualVM.app/Contents/Resources/visualvm/visualvm...
You want to take the netbeans.dir property and look up a directory and you will find the etc folder.
Uncomment this line in the visualvm.conf and change the path to the jdk
visualvm_jdkhome="/path/to/jdk"
Additionally, if you are having slowness with your visualvm and you have a lot of memory, I would suggest greatly increasing the amount of memory available and running it in server mode:
visualvm_default_options="-J-XX:MaxPermSize=96m -J-Xmx2048m -J-Xms2048m -J-server -J-XX:+UseCompressedOops -J-XX:+UseConcMarkSweepGC -J-XX:+UseParNewGC -J-XX:NewRatio=2 -J-Dnetbeans.accept_license_class=com.sun.tools.visualvm.modules.startup.AcceptLicense -J-Dsun.jvmstat.perdata.syncWaitMs=10000 -J-Dsun.java2d.noddraw=true -J-Dsun.java2d.d3d=false"

Simplify the need :-)
Steps to changes --
Find the installed version on your machine by executing following command
/usr/libexec/java_home -V
then you might see like below if there are multiple version of JDK installed
11.0.16 (arm64) "Homebrew" - "OpenJDK 11.0.16" /opt/homebrew/Cellar/blabla
1.8.0_292 (x86_64) "AdoptOpenJDK" - "AdoptOpenJDK 8" /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/bala
Create Env file based your machine, for mac like below create or edit the your system Environment file either .zshenv, .zshprofile etc...
nano ~/.zshenv
export JAVA_HOME=$(/usr/libexec/java_home -v 1.8.0_292)
Then the magic is done, where ever this symlink used all those java refer to version which you set! Happy coding Boys & Girls.

I had a similar situation, and the following process worked for me:
In the terminal, type
vi ~/.profile
Then add this line in the file, and save
export JAVA_HOME=/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk<version>.jdk/Contents/Home
where version is the one on your computer, such as 1.7.0_25
Exit the editor, then type the following command make it become effective
source ~/.profile
Then type java -version to check the result
java -version
What is .profile?
From:http://computers.tutsplus.com/tutorials/speed-up-your-terminal-workflow-with-command-aliases-and-profile--mac-30515
.profile file is a hidden file. It is an optional file which tells the system which commands to run when the user whose profile file it is logs in. For example, if my username is bruno and there is a .profile file in /Users/bruno/, all of its contents will be executed during the log-in procedure.

MacOS uses /usr/libexec/java_home to find the current Java Version. One way to bypass is to change the plist file as explained by #void256 above.
Other ways is to take the backup of the java_home and replace it with your own script java_home having the code
echo $JAVA_HOME
Now export the JAVA_HOME to the desired version of the SDK by adding the following commands to the ~/.bash_profile.
export JAVA_HOME="/System/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/1.6.0.jdk/Contents/Home"
launchctl setenv JAVA_HOME $JAVA_HOME /// Make the environment variable global
Run the command source ~/.bash_profile to the run the above commands.
Anytime one needs to change the JAVA_HOME he can reset the JAVA_HOME value in the ~/.bash_profile file.

I wanted to change default java version form 1.6* to 1.7*. I tried the following steps and it worked for me:
Removed link "java" from under /usr/bin
Created it again, pointing to the new location:
ln -s /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.7.0_51.jdk/Contents/Home/bin/java java
verified with "java -version"
java version "1.7.0_51"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.7.0_51-b13)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 24.51-b03, mixed mode)

Setting JAVA_HOME on OSX 10.8 [duplicate]

Java is an optional package on the latest versions of macOS.
Yet once installed it appears like the JAVA_HOME environment variable is not set properly.

With the Java optional package or Oracle JDK installed,
adding one of the following lines to your ~/.bash_profile file will set the environment variable accordingly.
export JAVA_HOME="$(/usr/libexec/java_home -v 1.6)"
or
export JAVA_HOME="$(/usr/libexec/java_home -v 1.7)"
or
export JAVA_HOME="$(/usr/libexec/java_home -v 1.8)"
or simply
export JAVA_HOME="$(/usr/libexec/java_home)"
Note: If you installed openjdk on mac using brew, run sudo ln -sfn /usr/local/opt/openjdk/libexec/openjdk.jdk /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/openjdk.jdk for the above to work
Update: added -v flag based on Jilles van Gurp response.

/usr/libexec/java_home is not a directory but an executable. It outputs the currently configured JAVA_HOME and doesn't actually change it. That's what the Java Preferences app is for, which in my case seems broken and doesn't actually change the JVM correctly. It does list the 1.7 JVM but I can toggle/untoggle & drag and drop all I want there without actually changing the output of /usr/libexec/java_home.
Even after installing 1.7.0 u6 from Oracle on Lion and setting it as the default in the preferences, it still returned the apple 1.6 java home. The only fix that actually works for me is setting JAVA_HOME manually:
export JAVA_HOME=/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.7.0_06.jdk/Contents/Home/
At least this way when run from the command line it will use 1.7. /usr/libexec/java_home still insists on 1.6.
Update: Understanding Java From Command Line on OSX has a better explanation on how this works.
export JAVA_HOME=`/usr/libexec/java_home -v 1.7`
is the way to do it. Note, updating this to 1.8 works just fine.

For me, Mountain Lion 10.8.2, the solution most voted does not work.
I installed jdk 1.7 via Oracle and maven from homebrew.
My solution is from the hadoop-env.sh file of hadoop which I installed from homebrew, too.
I add the below sentence in ~/.bash_profile, and it works.
export JAVA_HOME="$(/usr/libexec/java_home)"
This solution also works for OS X Yosemite with Java 1.8 installed from Oracle.

None of the above answers helped me. I suppose all the answers are for older OS X
For OS X Yosemite 10.10, follow these steps
Use your favorite text editor to open: ~/.bash_profile
//This command will open the file using vim
$ vim ~/.bash_profile
Add the following line in the file and save it ( : followed by "x" for vim):
export JAVA_HOME=$(/usr/libexec/java_home)
Then in the terminal type the following two commands to see output:
$ source ~/.bash_profile
$ echo $JAVA_HOME
In the second line, you are updating the contents of .bash_profile file.

Update for Java 9 and some neat aliases.
In .bash_profile:
export JAVA_HOME8=`/usr/libexec/java_home --version 1.8`
export JAVA_HOME9=`/usr/libexec/java_home --version 9`
Note, that for the latest version it is 9 and not 1.9.
Set active Java:
export JAVA_HOME=$JAVA_HOME8
export PATH=$JAVA_HOME/bin:$PATH
Some additional alias to switch between the different versions:
alias j8='export JAVA_HOME=$JAVA_HOME8; export PATH=$JAVA_HOME/bin:$PATH'
alias j9='export JAVA_HOME=$JAVA_HOME9; export PATH=$JAVA_HOME/bin:$PATH'
Test in terminal:
% j8
% java -version
java version "1.8.0_121"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_121-b13)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 25.121-b13, mixed mode)
% j9
% java -version
java version "9"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 9+181)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 9+181, mixed mode)
EDIT: Update for Java 10
export JAVA_HOME10=`/usr/libexec/java_home --version 10`
alias j10='export JAVA_HOME=$JAVA_HOME10; export PATH=$JAVA_HOME/bin:$PATH'
EDIT: Update for Java 11
export JAVA_HOME11=`/usr/libexec/java_home --version 11`
alias j11='export JAVA_HOME=$JAVA_HOME11; export PATH=$JAVA_HOME/bin:$PATH'

The above didn't work for me with Amazon's EC2 tools, because it expects bin/java etc. underneath JAVA_HOME. /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Home did work.

For OS X you can do:
export JAVA_HOME=`/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/Current/Commands/java_home`

On Mac OS X Lion, to set visualgc to run, I used:
export JAVA_HOME=/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.6.0/Home

The following worked for me. I'm using ZSH on OSX Yosemite with Java 8 installed.
The following command /usr/libexec/java_home emits the path to JDK home:
/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_05.jdk/Contents/Home
In your ~/.zshrc,
export JAVA_HOME = "/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_05.jdk/Contents/Home"

for macOS Mojave 10.14.1 and JAVA 11.0.1
I set the profile as
export JAVA_HOME=$(/usr/libexec/java_home)
key in terminal this to confirm:
$JAVA_HOME/bin/java -version
java version "11.0.1" 2018-10-16 LTS
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment 18.9 (build 11.0.1+13-LTS)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM 18.9 (build 11.0.1+13-LTS, mixed mode)

A better (more upgradable) way is to use the following:
/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/CurrentJDK/Home
This should work with AWS also since it has bin underneath Home

Newer Oracle JVMs such as 1.7.0_21-b12 seem to install here:
/Library/Internet\ Plug-Ins/JavaAppletPlugin.plugin/Contents/Home

My approach is:
.bashrc
export JAVA6_HOME=`/usr/libexec/java_home -v 1.6`
export JAVA7_HOME=`/usr/libexec/java_home -v 1.7`
export JAVA_HOME=$JAVA6_HOME
# -- optional
# export PATH=$JAVA_HOME/bin:$PATH
This makes it very easy to switch between J6 and J7

I Had to explicitly set it to the exact path on my Macbook air .
Steps followed:
try to echo $JAVA_HOME (if it's set it'll show the path), if not, try to search for it using sudo find /usr/ -name *jdk
Edit the Bash p with - sudo nano ~/.bash_profile
Add the exact path to JAVA Home (with the path from step 2 above)
export JAVA_HOME=/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_144.jdk/Contents/Home
Save and exit
Check JAVA_Home using - echo $JAVA_HOME
I am running MACOS MOJAVE - 10.14.2 (18C54) on a Macbook Air with JAVA 8

OSX Yosemite, ZSH, and Java SE Runtime Environment 8, I had to:
$ sudo ln -s /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/Current/Commands /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/Current/bin
and in ~/.zshrc change JAVA_HOME to
export JAVA_HOME="/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/Current"

For Mac OS X 10.9 I installed the latest version of JRE from Oracle and then reset the JAVA_HOME to /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.7.0_45.jdk/Contents/Home.
I am sure there is a better way but this got me up and running.
hughsmac:~ hbrien$ echo $JAVA_HOME
/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.7.0_45.jdk/Contents/Home

For Java 11 (JDK 11) it can be located with the following command:
/usr/libexec/java_home -v 11

Got the same issue after I upgrade my Mac OS and following worked for me:
cmd>vi ~/.bash_profile
Add/update the line for JAVA_HOME:
export JAVA_HOME="/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.7.0_15.jdk/Contents/Home"
cmd>source ~/.bash_profile or open a new terminal
I think the jdk version might differ, so just use the version which you have under /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/

If you are in need to have multiple versions of JDK under Mac OS X (Yosemite), it might be helpful to add some scripting for automated switching between them.
What you do is to edit your ~/.bash_profile and add the following:
function setjdk() {
if [ $# -ne 0 ]; then
removeFromPath '/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Home/bin'
if [ -n "${JAVA_HOME+x}" ]; then
removeFromPath $JAVA_HOME
fi
export JAVA_HOME=`/usr/libexec/java_home -v $#`
export PATH=$JAVA_HOME/bin:$PATH
fi
}
function removeFromPath() {
export PATH=$(echo $PATH | sed -E -e "s;:$1;;" -e "s;$1:?;;")
}
setjdk 1.7
What the script does is to first remove other JDK versions in the PATH so that they won’t interfere with our new JDK version. Then it makes some clever use of /usr/libexec/java_home which is a command that lists installed JDK versions. The -v argument tells java_home to return the path of the JDK with the supplied version, for example 1.7. We also update the PATH to point to the bin directory of the newly found JAVA_HOME directory. At the end we can simply execute the function using
setjdk 1.7
which selects the latest installed JDK version of the 1.7 branch. To select a specific version you can simply execute
setjdk 1.7.0_51
instead. Run /usr/libexec/java_home -V to get more details on how to choose versions.
P.S. Do not forget to source ~/.bash_profile after you save it.

For Fish terminal users on Mac (I believe it's available on Linux as well), this should work:
set -Ux JAVA_8 (/usr/libexec/java_home --version 1.8)
set -Ux JAVA_12 (/usr/libexec/java_home --version 12)
set -Ux JAVA_HOME $JAVA_8 //or whichever version you want as default

This answer is related to Mountain Lion and not Lion. I needed to do this for the AWS Command Line Tools. According to the AWS docs, running which java returns /usr/bin/java.
So, I set JAVA_HOME=/usr in my .bashrc.
Apparently, /usr/bin/java is a symbolic link to /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/Current/Commands/java which makes it all work.
Update
As mentioned in the comment below, this JAVA_HOME value is not an ideal solution when the JAVA_HOME environment variable is to be used by things other than the AWS Command Line Tools. It works fine for the AWS Command Line Tools, though, as given in their docs.

for mac user .
java 8 should add
export JAVA_HOME=`/usr/libexec/java_home -v 1.8`
# JAVA_HOME=/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_05.jdk/Contents/Home
java 6 :
export JAVA_HOME=`/usr/libexec/java_home -v 1.6`
# JAVA_HOME=/System/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/1.6.0.jdk/Contents/Home
ref :http://qiita.com/seri_k/items/e978c1339ce51f13e297

For Mac Yosemite,
JDK 1.7.0_xx is using
$ ls -ltar /usr/bin/java
/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/Current/Commands/java
JAVA_HOME
/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.7.0_xx.jdk/Contents/Home

Anyone using AUSKEY from the Australian Tax Office (ATO) should uninstall AUSKEY.
This sorted out my JAVA_HOME issues.
It is also no longer required for MAC users. Yah!

I'm using Fish shell on High Sierra 10.13.4 and installed Java via Brew.
It's not automatically set up so to set it correctly on my system I run:
set -U JAVA_HOME (/usr/libexec/java_home)

Just set java_home of 1.8 jdk version in netbeans.conf file:
/Applications/NetBeans/NetBeans 8.2.app/Contents/Resources/NetBeans/etc/netbeans.conf
uncomment line:
netbeans_jdkhome="path/to/jdk"
and set path to your 1.8 jdk, in my case:
netbeans_jdkhome="/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_121.jdk/Contents/Home"
This approach lays you to have several jdk versions on mac os

Handy command for knowing java home and other details.
java -XshowSettings:properties -version
and to know all java homes on your mac:
/usr/libexec/java_home -V

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