Mac OS X and multiple Java versions

The cleanest way to manage multiple java versions on Mac is to use Homebrew.

And within Homebrew, use:

homebrew-cask to install the versions of java

jenv to manage the installed versions of java

As seen on http://hanxue-it.blogspot.ch/2014/05/installing-java-8-managing-multiple.html , these are the steps to follow.

install homebrew install homebrew jenv install homebrew-cask install a specific java version using cask (see "homebrew-cask versions" paragraph below) add this version for jenv to manage it check the version is correctly managed by jenv repeat steps 4 to 6 for each version of java you need

homebrew-cask versions

Add the homebrew/cask-versions tap to homebrew using:

brew tap homebrew/cask-versions

Then you can look at all the versions available:

brew search java

Then you can install the version(s) you like:

brew cask install java7
brew cask install java6

And add them to be managed by jenv as usual.

jenv add <javaVersionPathHere>

I think this is the cleanest & simplest way to go about it.

Another important thing to note, as mentioned in Mac OS X 10.6.7 Java Path Current JDK confusing :

For different types of JDKs or installations, you will have different paths You can check the paths of the versions installed using /usr/libexec/java_home -V, see How do I check if the Java JDK is installed on Mac? On Mac OS X Mavericks, I found as following: 1) Built-in JRE default: /Library/Internet\ Plug-Ins/JavaAppletPlugin.plugin/Contents/Home 2) JDKs downloaded from Apple: /System/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/1.6.0.jdk/Contents/Home/ 3) JDKs downloaded from Oracle: /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_11.jdk/Contents/Home

Resources

Removing Java 8 JDK from Mac

http://hanxue-it.blogspot.ch/2014/05/installing-java-8-managing-multiple.html

http://sourabhbajaj.com/mac-setup/index.html

http://brew.sh

https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew/tree/master/share/doc/homebrew#readme

http://sourabhbajaj.com/mac-setup/Homebrew/README.html

"brew tap” explained https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew/blob/master/share/doc/homebrew/brew-tap.md

“brew versions” explained Homebrew install specific version of formula? and also https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-versions

https://github.com/caskroom/homebrew-cask

“cask versions”, similar to “brew versions”, see https://github.com/caskroom/homebrew-versions and also https://github.com/caskroom/homebrew-cask/issues/9447

http://www.jenv.be

https://github.com/gcuisinier/jenv

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Uninstall jdk8, install jdk7, then reinstall jdk8.

My approach to switching between them (in .profile) :

export JAVA_7_HOME=$(/usr/libexec/java_home -v1.7)
export JAVA_8_HOME=$(/usr/libexec/java_home -v1.8)
export JAVA_9_HOME=$(/usr/libexec/java_home -v9)

alias java7='export JAVA_HOME=$JAVA_7_HOME'
alias java8='export JAVA_HOME=$JAVA_8_HOME'
alias java9='export JAVA_HOME=$JAVA_9_HOME'

#default java8
export JAVA_HOME=$JAVA_8_HOME

Then you can simply type java7 or java8 in a terminal to switch versions.

(edit: updated to add Dylans improvement for Java 9)

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For macOS Sierra 420

This guide was cobbled together from various sources (replies above as well as other posts), and works perfect.

0. If you haven't already, install homebrew.

See https://brew.sh/

1. Install jenv

brew install jenv

2. Add jenv to the bash profile

if which jenv > /dev/null; then eval "$(jenv init -)"; fi

3. Add jenv to your path

export PATH="$HOME/.jenv/shims:$PATH"

4. Tap "caskroom/versions"

FYI: "Tap" extends brew's list of available repos it can install, above and beyond brew's default list of available repos.

brew tap caskroom/versions

5. Install the latest version of java

brew cask install java

6. Install java 6 (or 7 or 8 whatever you need)

brew cask install java6
#brew cask install java7
#brew cask install java8

? Maybe close and restart Terminal so it sees any new ENV vars that got setup.

7. Review Installations

All Java version get installed here: /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines lets take a look.

ls -la /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines

8. Add each path to jenv one-at-a-time.

We need to add "/Contents/Home" to the version folder. WARNING: Use the actual paths on your machine... these are just EXAMPLE's

jenv add /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/1.6.0___EXAMPLE___/Contents/Home
jenv add /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk-9.0.1.jdk___EXAMPLE___/Contents/Home

9. Check if jenv registered OK

jenv versions

10. Set java version to use (globably)

Where XX matches one of the items in the versions list above.

jenv global XX

Check java version

java -version

Check jenv versions

Should also indicate the current version being used with an asterisk.

jenv versions

DONE

Quick future reference

To change java versions

... See the list of available java versions

jenv versions

... then, where XX matches an item in the list above

jenv global XX

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SDKMAN! is a great tool for using multiple versions of Java, Gradle, Groovy, Kotlin, and other JVM tools on Mac OS. Installation and usage doc are easily found on the main site.

(I have no affiliation, just a happy user).

As an example usage, if I type the following in a Terminal window, there is a list of available Java SDK versions (edited for brevity):

$ sdk list java
Available Java Versions
   + 9ea170                                                                        
 > + 8u131                                                                         
     7u141-zulu                     

Here + denotes that the version is installed. > denotes which version is currently in use. To install a version:

$ sdk install java 7u141-zulu

To use a version in this Terminal window:

$ sdk use java 9ea170

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First, you need to make certain you have multiple JAVA versions installed. Open a new Terminal window and input:

/usr/libexec/java_home -V

Your output should look like:

Matching Java Virtual Machines (2):
11.0.1, x86_64: "Java SE 11.0.1" /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk-11.0.1.jdk/Contents/Home
1.8.0_201, x86_64: "Java SE 8" /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_201.jdk/Contents/Home

Note that there are two JDKs available. If you don’t notice the Java version you need to switch to, download and install the appropriate one from here https://www.oracle.com/java/technologies/downloads/ (JDK 8 is represented as 1.8) . Once you have installed the appropriate JDK, repeat this step.

Take note of the JDK version you want to switch to. For example, “11.0” and “1.8” are the JDK versions available in the example above. Switch to the desired version. For example, if you wish to switch to JDK 8, input the following line: export JAVA_HOME=/usr/libexec/java_home -v 1.8

For 11.0, switch “1.8” with “11.0” 4. Check your JDK version by inputting into Terminal:

java -version

If you have followed all the steps correctly, the JDK version should correlate with the one you specified in the last step. 5. (Optional) To make this the default JDK version, input the following in Terminal:

open ~/.bash_profile

Then, add your Terminal input from step 3 to this file:

SWITCH TO JAVA VERSION 8

export JAVA_HOME=`/usr/libexec/java_home -v 1.8`

Save and close the file.

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As found on this website So Let’s begin by installing jEnv

Run this in the terminal brew install https://raw.github.com/gcuisinier/jenv/homebrew/jenv.rb Add jEnv to the bash profile if which jenv > /dev/null; then eval "$(jenv init -)"; fi When you first install jEnv will not have any JDK associated with it. For example, I just installed JDK 8 but jEnv does not know about it. To check Java versions on jEnv At the moment it only found Java version(jre) on the system. The * shows the version currently selected. Unlike rvm and rbenv, jEnv cannot install JDK for you. You need to install JDK manually from Oracle website. Install JDK 6 from Apple website. This will install Java in /System/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/. The reason we are installing Java 6 from Apple website is that SUN did not come up with JDK 6 for MAC, so Apple created/modified its own deployment version. Similarly install JDK7 and JDK8. Add JDKs to jEnv. JDK 6: JDK 7: JDK 8: Check the java versions installed using jenv So now we have 3 versions of Java on our system. To set a default version use the command jenv local Ex – I wanted Jdk 1.6 to start IntelliJ jenv local oracle64-1.6.0.65 check the java version java -version

That’s it. We now have multiple versions of java and we can switch between them easily. jEnv also has some other features, such as wrappers for Gradle, Ant, Maven, etc, and the ability to set JVM options globally or locally. Check out the documentation for more information.

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I find this Java version manager called Jabba recently and the usage is very similar to version managers of other languages like rvm(ruby), nvm(node), pyenv(python), etc. Also it's cross platform so definitely it can be used on Mac.

After installation, it will create a dir in ~/.jabba to put all the Java versions you install. It "Supports installation of Oracle JDK (default) / Server JRE, Zulu OpenJDK (since 0.3.0), IBM SDK, Java Technology Edition (since 0.6.0) and from custom URLs.".

Basic usage is listed on their Github. A quick summary to start:

curl -sL https://github.com/shyiko/jabba/raw/master/install.sh | bash && . ~/.jabba/jabba.sh

# install Oracle JDK
jabba install 1.8 # "jabba use 1.8" will be called automatically  
jabba install 1.7 # "jabba use 1.7" will be called automatically 

# list all installed JDK's
jabba ls

# switch to a different version of JDK
jabba use 1.8

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In the same spirit than @Vegard (lightweight):

Install the wanted JDKs with Homebrew

Put this jdk bash function and a default in your .profile jdk() { version=$1 export JAVA_HOME=$(/usr/libexec/java_home -v"$version"); java -version } export JAVA_HOME=$(/usr/libexec/java_home -v11); # Your default version

and then, to switch your jdk, you can do jdk 9 jdk 11 jdk 13

Based on https://github.com/AdoptOpenJDK/homebrew-openjdk.

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Manage multiple java version in MAC using jenv

Install homebrew using following command /bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install.sh)" install jenv and activate jenv brew install jenv echo 'eval "$(jenv init -)"' >> ~/.bash_profile tap cask-versions brew tap homebrew/cask-versions search available java version that can be installed brew search java E.g. to install java6 use following command brew install cask java6 Add multiple versions of java in jenv jenv add /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_231.jdk/Contents/Home jenv add /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/1.6.0.jdk/Contents/Home

Note:- if you get error like ln: /Users/<username>/.jenv/versions/oracle64-1.8.0.231: No such file or directory, then run following:-

   mkdir -p /Users/<username>/.jenv/versions/oracle64-1.8.0.231

Rehash jenv after adding jdk’s jenv rehash List known versions of java to jenv jenv versions Set default version jenv global oracle64-1.8.0.231 Change java version for a project jenv local oracle64-1.6.0.65 set JAVA_HOME with the same version as jenv jenv exec bash echo $JAVA_HOME

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I am using Mac OS X 10.9.5. This is how I manage multiple JDK/JRE on my machine when I need one version to run application A and use another version for application B.

I created the following script after getting some help online.

#!bin/sh
function setjdk() {
  if [ $# -ne 0 ]; then
   removeFromPath '/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/'
   if [ -n "${JAVA_HOME+x}" ]; then
    removeFromPath $JAVA_HOME
   fi
   export JAVA_HOME=/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/$1/Contents/Home
   export PATH=$JAVA_HOME/bin:$PATH
  fi
 }
 function removeFromPath() {
  export PATH=$(echo $PATH | sed -E -e "s;:$1;;" -e "s;$1:?;;")
 }
#setjdk jdk1.8.0_60.jdk
setjdk jdk1.7.0_15.jdk

I put the above script in .profile file. Just open terminal, type vi .profile, append the script with the above snippet and save it. Once your out type source .profile, this will run your profile script without you having to restart the terminal. Now type java -version it should show 1.7 as your current version. If you intend to change it to 1.8 then comment the line setjdk jdk1.7.0_15.jdk and uncomment the line setjdk jdk1.8.0_60.jdk. Save the script and run it again with source command. I use this mechanism to manage multiple versions of JDK/JRE when I have to compile 2 different Maven projects which need different java versions.

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Jenv on Mac Sierra:

if not working after install, do this bug fix to add java executable to path

export PATH="$HOME/.jenv/shims:$PATH"

even though eval "$(jenv init -)" could do this job. The reason is /bin folder is not there anymore as describe in it's homepage, but shim folder is used as /bin instead.

Make sure ~/.jenv is there

which java may print /Library/...

jenv global 1.8

jenv shell 1.8

Eventually, which java gives you:

/Users/xxxx/.jenv/shims/java

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I answer lately and I really recommand you to use SDKMAN instead of Homebrew.

With SDKMAN you can install easily different version of JAVA in your mac and switch from on version to another.

https://i.stack.imgur.com/Xoww2.png

You can also use SDKMAN for ANT, GRADLE, KOTLIN, MAVEN, SCALA, etc...

https://i.stack.imgur.com/AWd2q.png

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I know that this question already have a lot of answers, but I want to share my solution only using Temurin and bash.

AdoptOpenJdk is deprecated and that is why I'm using Temurin.

1. Download Temurin using the mirrors or a package manager

$ brew install --cask temurin

And for other versions (like Java 8):

$ brew tap homebrew/cask-versions

$ brew install --cask temurin8

2. Add a bash script into your bash profile

Open your ~/.zshrc or ~/.bash_profile (depending on what you're using it)

And add this code:

set-jdk() {
    jdkversion=$1
    export JAVA_HOME=/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/temurin-"$jdkversion".jdk/Contents/Home;
    export PATH=$PATH:$JAVA_HOME/bin;
    java -version
}

3. Restart your terminal and change your Java version

$ set-jdk N N being the Java version that you want and it's already installed

e.g. $ set-jdk 8 To change to Java 8 / 1.8

Few considerations:

It will only keep the Java version on the terminal session that you used the set-jdk command

It won't set the Java version as global

When you want to add the JAVA_HOME into another script/application, you can set /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/temurin-.jdk/Contents/Home (change the for the desired Java version. Like this JD-GUI example)

Enjoy

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Here's a more DRY version for bash (Based on Vegard's answer)

Replace 1.7 and 1.8 with whatever versions you are interested with and you'll get an alias called 'javaX'; where 'X' is the java version (7 / 8 in the snippet below) that will allow you to easily switch versions

for version in 1.7 1.8; do
    v="${version: -1}"
    h=JAVA_"$v"_HOME

    export "$h"=$(/usr/libexec/java_home -v $version)

    alias "java$v"="export JAVA_HOME=\$$h"
done

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To install more recent versions of OpenJDK, I use this. Example for OpenJDK 14:

brew info adoptopenjdk
brew tap adoptopenjdk/openjdk
brew cask install adoptopenjdk14

See https://github.com/AdoptOpenJDK/homebrew-openjdk for current info.

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I followed steps in below link - https://medium.com/@euedofia/fix-default-java-version-on-maven-on-mac-os-x-156cf5930078 and it worked for me.

cd /usr/local/Cellar/maven/3.5.4/bin/
nano mvn
--Update JAVA_HOME -> "${JAVA_HOME:-$(/usr/libexec/java_home)}"
mvn -version

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New commands for installing Java via Homebrew:

brew cask install adoptopenjdk/openjdk/adoptopenjdk8

brew cask install adoptopenjdk/openjdk/adoptopenjdk11

See the homebrew-openjdk repo for the latest commands.

Installing Java

You can install Java via Homebrew, Jabba, SDKMAN or manually. See this answer for details on all the commands.

Switching Java versions*

You can switch Java versions with jenv Jabba, SDKMAN or manually. See details on all the switching commands here.

Best solutions

Jabba is designed to work on multiple platforms, so it's a good option if you want a solution that'll also work on Windows

Using Homebrew to download Java versions and jenv to switch versions provides a nice workflow. jenv makes it easy to work with Java versions stored in any directory on your machine, so it's a good alternative if you're interested in storing Java in non-default directories.

Using SDKMAN to download Javas and switch versions is another great alternative

Manually switching should be avoided because it's an unnecessary headache.

Function to manually switch Java versions

Here's the Bash / ZSH function for manually switching Java versions (by OpenJDK):

jdk() {
        version=$1
        export JAVA_HOME=$(/usr/libexec/java_home -v"$version");
        java -version
 }

There are great tools for switching Java versions, so I highly recommend against doing it manually.

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Here is a great tutorial https://medium.com/@chamikakasun/how-to-manage-multiple-java-version-in-macos-e5421345f6d0 by using jEnv installed by brew

or you can check out homebrew-openjdk https://github.com/AdoptOpenJDK/homebrew-openjdk managing version using brew Tap

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