Today I was trying to figure out how to quickly change the JAVA_HOME environment variable from the terminal using the
/usr/libexec/java_home command-line utility. I looked at
/usr/libexec/java_home --help but didn't pay close attention to the usages because I was in on the phone. As my friend
Martijn Dashorts pointed out, there's a manpage for this utility. I am embarrassed to admit that I didn't even think to check for a manpage! My idiot moment for the day, I guess. Here are the two aliases I created:
alias setjdk16='export JAVA_HOME=$(/usr/libexec/java_home -v 1.6*)'
alias setjdk17='export JAVA_HOME=$(/usr/libexec/java_home -v 1.7*)'
Put these aliases in your ~/.bash_profile or ~/.profile, reload the profile and you're ready to go. BTW, if you haven't switched from iTerm to
iTerm2 yet, you should do it now ;-).
About Bruce Snyder
Bruce Snyder is a veteran of enterprise software development and a recognized leader in open source software. With over a decade of experience, Bruce has worked with a wide range of technologies including Java EE, Enterprise Messaging and Service Oriented Integration. In addition to his role as a senior software engineer at SpringSource, Bruce is also an Apache Member, a co-founder of Apache Geronimo and a developer for Apache ActiveMQ, Apache Camel and Apache ServiceMix. He is the co-author of Professional Apache Geronimo, Beginning Spring Framework 2 both from Wrox Press and is currently co-authoring ActiveMQ In Action for Manning Publications. Bruce also serves as a member of various JCP expert groups and is a recognized international speaker at industry conferences. Bruce lives in beautiful Boulder, Colorado with his family.
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Today I was trying to figure out how to quickly change the JAVA_HOME environment variable from the terminal using the /usr/libexec/java_home command-line utility. I looked at /usr/libexec/java_home --help but didn't pay close attention to the usages because I was in on the phone. As my friend Martijn Dashorts pointed out, there's a manpage for this utility. I am embarrassed to admit that I didn't even think to check for a manpage! My idiot moment for the day, I guess. Here are the two aliases I created: 
