The above example could be rewritten using `java_home` as: export JAVA_HOME=$(/usr/libexec/java_home -v 11) This is really helpful if you’re setting a project-specific JDK and sharing this configuration with other team members via direnv. The most useful component is that you can provide `java_home` a less precise version and let it figure out which specific path to use. You can read about it via `man java_home`. MacOS also has a utility for finding the location of a JDK. It’s really handy that this is set via an environment variable because it allows you to, in tandem with tools like direnv, easily switch between JDK versions depending on the project that you’re working on. macOS has built-in wrappers for Java commands that will first check this environment variable before trampolining over to the JDK specified by it. JAVA_HOME='/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk-11.0.7.jdk/Contents/Home'Īnd you’re done. Using the example above, it would look like this: export You’ve got to set the `JAVA_HOME` environment variable. The JDK has been extracted to the right place, but it’s still not quite ready to use. Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk-11.0.7.jdk/Contents/Home

If you did this step right, you’ll have a folder named “jdk-11.0.7.jdk.” There should also be a Contents/Home subfolder of that: Untar the JDK as-is into a subfolder of this.

On macOS, the correct place to install a JDK is `/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines`. So instead of installing Java any old way, follow these instructions. For example, the version of Gradle used by React Native is incompatible with JDKs newer than 11. Unfortunately, it’s pretty common to want to specify a particular Java version for your project. If you don’t follow it, everything will probably work just fine… at least until you need to switch which version of Java you’re using. I prefer the javahome shell function below rather than adding new values to PATH.There is a correct way to install Java on macOS. Installing JDKs with brew also recommends adding /usr/local/opt/openjdkXX/bin to PATH. Setting the symlink after every installation step is important for the system Java wrappers to find the installed JDK. That includes JAVA LTS releases 17, 11, 8: # version 17īrew install ln -sfn /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/openjdk-17.jdkīrew install ln -sfn /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/openjdk-11.jdkīrew install ln -sfn /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/openjdk-8.jdk On Mac you can install Java/JVM with brew‘s openjdk formulae.

No time? jump straight to the javahome function This post includes Java LTS version 17 and shows how to switch between Java/JDK LTS versions 8, 11 and 17. Change Java version on Mac 11 BigSur & persist it is great.

Java jdk macos