How to set the JAVA_HOME in Mavericks 10.9?

Question

I checked the java it is installed on my system.If i enter whereis java it shows me the

/usr/bin/java

I want to set the JAVA_HOME, i already gave the path /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.7.0_09.jdk/Contents/Home but it won't work.

If i enter $JAVA_HOME it returns nothing.

1. If i enter this command /usr/libexec/java_home -v 1.7 it shows me the result

   /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.7.0_09.jdk/Contents/Home

but while setting up my local workspace it won't work it simply says

`/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.7.0_09.jdk/Contents/Home` is not valid `JAVA_HOME`

How can I resolve this issue?

Answer 1

Environment variables such as this are stored in bash and users use configuration files to set parameters for their bash environments.

for example in your home directory you will likely have one or both of a .bashrc or a .bash_profile file.

1) open this file

vi ~/.bash_profile

2) add the following line to this file

#Default to java 1.6
export JAVA_HOME=`/usr/libexec/java_home -v 1.6`

This will set the $JAVA_HOME variable to the path defined above. In my case:

/System/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/1.6.0.jdk/Contents/Home

Once you change a bash configuration file you either need to restart your terminal or source that file

source ~/.bash_profile

Then finally confirm that this worked by running the command

echo $JAVA_HOME