Trying to run a Java application on your Mac and need to set your JAVA_HOME? Follow the instructions below to quickly and easily do it:
- Open Terminal
- Confirm you have JDK by typing “which java”. It should show something like /usr/bin/java.
- Check you have the needed version of Java, by typing “java -version”.
- JAVA_HOME is essentially the full path of the directory that contains a sub-directory named bin which in turn contains the java.
- For Mac OSX – it is /Library/Java/Home
- Set JAVA_HOME using this command in Terminal: export JAVA_HOME=/Library/Java/Home
- echo $JAVA_HOME on Terminal to confirm the path
- You should now be able to run your application
Note that this sets JAVA_HOME only for this session. If you want it to persist, you will have to add the command to your ~/.profile file. Below are instructions on how to accomplish this instead:
- Open up Terminal.app (Applications >> Utilities >> Terminal)
- Type: emacs .profile
- add this to the end of the .profile file:
JAVA_HOME=/Library/Java/Home
export JAVA_HOME;
- Save and exit emacs (ctrl-x, ctrl-s; ctrl-x, ctrl-c)
- Open a new Terminal window (cmd-n) and type: $JAVA_HOME/bin/java -version
If you see something like:
java version “1.8.0_…″
Then you’ve successfully set your JAVA_HOME environment variable to the binary stored in /Library/Java/Home/bin/java