Installing Java on OS X 10.9 (Mavericks)

The new Mavericks (10.9) showed me the "Requesting install", but nothing happened.

The solution was to manually download and install the official Java package for OS X, which is in Java for OS X 2013-005.

Update: As mentioned in the comments below, there is a newer version of this same package:

Java for OS X 2014-001

Java for OS X 2014-001 (Correcting dead line above)

Java for OS X 2014-001 includes installation improvements, and supersedes all previous versions of Java for OS X. This package installs the same version of Java 6 included in Java for OS X 2013-005.

If you only want to install the latest official JRE from Oracle, you can get it there, install it, and export the new JAVA_HOME in the terminal.

Open your Terminal

java -version gives you an error and a popup

Get the JRE dmg on http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/index.html

Install it

In your terminal, type: export JAVA_HOME="/Library/Internet Plug-Ins/JavaAppletPlugin.plugin/Contents/Home"

java -version now gives you java version "1.7.0_45"

That's the cleanest way I found to install the latest JRE.

You can add the export JAVA_HOME line in your .bashrc to have java permanently in your Terminal:

echo export JAVA_HOME=\"/Library/Internet Plug-Ins/JavaAppletPlugin.plugin/Contents/Home\" >> ~/.bashrc

The right place to download the JDK for Java 7 is Java SE Downloads.

All the other links provided above, as far as I can tell, either provide the JRE or Java 6 downloads (incidentally, if you want to run Eclipse or other IDEs, like IntelliJ IDEA, you will need the JDK, not the JRE).

Regarding IntelliJ IDEA - that will still ask you to install Java 6 as it apparently needs an older class loader or something: just follow the instructions when the dialog pop-up appears and it will install the JDK 6 in the right place.

Afterwards, you will need to do the sudo ln -snf mentioned in the answer above:

sudo ln -nsf /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.7.0_45.jdk/Contents \
    /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/CurrentJDK

(copied here as it was mentioned that "above" may eventually not make sense as answers are re-sorted).

I also set my JAVA_HOME to point to where jdk_1.7.0_xx.jdk was installed:

export JAVA_HOME="/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.7.0_45.jdk/Contents/Home"

Then add that to your PATH:

export PATH=$JAVA_HOME/bin:$PATH

The alternative is to fuzz around with Apple's insane maze of hyperlinks, but honestly life is too short to bother.

I downloaded and installed the JDK 1.7 from Oracle. In the console / in Terminal Java 7 works fine.

When I start a Java program (like Eclipse) via the GUI, I get:

To open "Eclipse.app" you need a Java SE 6 runtime. Would you like to install one now?

Because I did not want to install old Java version, I used the following workaround:

sudo ln -nsf /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.7.0_45.jdk/Contents /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/CurrentJDK

Credits to monkehWorks.

This error happens because the plist file of IntelliJ IDEA requires Java version 1.6*. To solve this problem, replace the 1.6* with 1.8*.

<key>JVMOptions</key>
<dict>
    <key>ClassPath</key>
      ...

    <key>JVMVersion</key>
    <string>1.8*</string>

    <key>MainClass</key>
    <string>com.intellij.idea.Main</string>
    <key>Properties</key>
<dict>

The OP implied that Java 7 was the need. And Java 6 is in fact no longer being 'supported' so 7 is the version you should be installing at this point unless you have legacy app concerns.

You can get it here: http://java.com/en/download/mac_download.jsp?locale=en

My experience for updating Java SDK on OS X 10.9 was much easier.

I downloaded the latest Java SE Development Kit 8, from SE downloads and installed the .dmg file. And when typing java -version in terminal the following was displayed:

java version "1.8.0_11" Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_11-b12) Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 25.11-b03, mixed mode)

I downloaded manually to here: Java for OS X 2014-001.

After that open your terminal and check the installation with java -version.

EDIT (January, 2015): Also see HT202912, About Java for OS X 2014-001:

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

From the OP:

I finally reinstalled it from Java for OS X 2013-005. It solved this issue.

This error means Java is not properly installed .

1) brew cask install java (No need to install cask separately it comes with brew)

2) java -version

java version "1.8.0_131"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_131-b11)

P.S - What is brew-cask ? Homebrew-Cask extends Homebrew , and solves the hassle of executing an extra command - “To install, drag this icon…” after installing a Application using Homebrew.

N.B - This problem is not specific to Mavericks , you will get it almost all the OS X, including EL Capitan.

There isn't any need to install the JDK, which is the developer kit, just the JRE which is the runtime environment.