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I've installed a version of Java. How can we set the $JAVA_HOME environment variable correctly?

kiri
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Gaurav Agarwal
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4 Answers4

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You can set your JAVA_HOME in /etc/profile as Petronilla Escarabajo suggests. But the preferred location for JAVA_HOME or any system variable is /etc/environment.

Open /etc/environment in any text editor like nano or gedit and add the following line:

JAVA_HOME="/usr/lib/jvm/open-jdk"

(java path could be different)

Use source to load the variables, by running this command:

source /etc/environment

Then check the variable, by running this command:

echo $JAVA_HOME

Update

Usually most linux systems source /etc/environment by default. If your system doesn't do that add the following line to ~/.bashrc (Thanks @pje)

source /etc/environment
Zanna
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Manula Waidyanatha
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    When i tried to run Android Studio (that has IntelliJ IDEA as a base), i had an error message very similar to @advocate's: "'tools.jar' seems to be not in Android Studio classpath." After fiddling a lot with JAVA_HOME without success, i decided to take a look at studio.sh, the shellscript that starts Android Studio. As a wild guess, i set JDK_HOME to the same value expected for JAVA_HOME, and voila! It installed without great problems. – Hilton Fernandes Mar 07 '15 at 23:20
  • how to set multiple paths for different JDKs http://paste.ubuntu.com/13151297/ will work?? – LOG_TAG Nov 07 '15 at 17:13
  • This setting seems temporary. After restarting the pc, we have to source it again – Samitha Chathuranga Aug 11 '16 at 17:09
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    For those doing software development, don't put your JAVA_HOME in /etc/environment unless you want to reboot everytime you switch JDK versions. – Dave Sep 20 '16 at 19:03
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    This is a temporary solution, as others pointed out. No one would want to run source every time they restart their bash. – yuranos Feb 19 '17 at 21:49
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    As others have pointed out, this doesn't stick between terminal sessions. What I did to address this is just added the line source /etc/environment to the top of my bash config file ~/.bashrc so that it loads all my environment settings on startup. Working for me so far. – pje Mar 11 '17 at 22:31
  • @ManulaWaidyanatha pje's comment should be included in your answer. It's not practical to do 'source /etc/environment' every time we open a new terminal. – Pedro Gordo Apr 11 '17 at 14:55
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    @sedulam I updated the answer – Manula Waidyanatha Apr 20 '17 at 06:20
  • @HDave If not /etc/environment, then where should you the JAVA_HOME assignment then? – Robert Oschler Aug 03 '17 at 15:59
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    @RobertOschler @HDave you don't need to restart your servers everytime. You can use the source command to reload the configurations. – Manula Waidyanatha Aug 04 '17 at 07:00
  • in ubuntu 18.04 I can see variable set when doing "echo $JAVA_HOME" but it is not listed in output of "printenv" - why? – Oleg Vazhnev May 14 '18 at 09:20
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    Sourcing /etc/environment doesn't work for me (19.04). See https://superuser.com/questions/339617/how-to-reload-etc-environment-without-rebooting – Azmisov Oct 21 '19 at 16:54
  • ls: cannot access '/usr/lib/jvm/open-jdk': No such file or directory – Damien Feb 11 '23 at 05:00
  • @Damien Nowadays (23.10) if you have it installed through apt like default-jdk or default-jre, you should find it at JAVA_HOME="/usr/lib/jvm/default-java". It's a symlink that points to whichever the current one is on the same folder. Best option if you always want to use the latest one installed. – geekley Nov 23 '23 at 01:36
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To set JAVA_HOME environment variable, do the following:

  1. Launch Terminal by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on your keyboard.
  2. Enter the following command:
    $ gksudo gedit /etc/environment
  3. Depending on where you installed your Java, you will need to provide the full path. For this example, I installed Oracle JDK 7 in the /usr/lib/jvm/java-7-oracle directory.
    Scroll to the end of the file and enter the following:
    JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/java-7-oracle
    export JAVA_HOME
  4. Save your file and exit gedit.
  5. Lastly, reload the system PATH with the following command:
    $ . /etc/environment

The above method will save you the hassle in having to run the commands every time you log in to your computer.

Petronilla Escarabajo
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    How does . /etc/environment work? – Sudip Bhandari Sep 13 '16 at 13:36
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    Is the addition of the export command necessary in the /etc/environment ? – pkaramol Nov 23 '16 at 10:01
  • @pkaramol I've had to add export JAVA_HOME on 16.04LTS to make it load at startup. – adeen-s Jan 20 '17 at 06:20
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    @adeen-s You added export to a line in /etc/environment and it helped? That file contains variable definitions parsed as =-delimited name-value pairs; its contents are not executed as commands. (See man pam_env.) So unless you're separately treating the file as though it were a script (such as by passing /etc/environment to bash's ./source builtin), I wouldn't expect that to work. – Eliah Kagan Aug 17 '17 at 16:02
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    How does . /etc/environment work?

    -- . (dot) loads commands from a file https://askubuntu.com/a/232938/189965

     – Roman Bekkiev Sep 22 '18 at 07:32
  • I am doubtful if this will persist the JAVA_HOME path for all future sessions? I followed the above steps. But after I logged out and logged in again echo $JAVA_HOME does not give the Java installation path.Any reason why? – raikumardipak Jan 24 '19 at 10:46
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If you do not know the path and you only have openJDK installed, you can type update-alternatives --config java and you should find the path. To set the variable you can write JAVA_HOME=<PATH> followed by export JAVA_HOME. Notice there's no space when declaring the variable. To check if the variable is stored you simply type echo $JAVA_HOME to verify.

Erro
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    This seems like it would be static. If I remove openjdk-7 and install openjdk-9, won't the JAVA_HOME then point to the wrong place? How can it be made dynamic? – DavidJ Jul 20 '16 at 18:49
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    By you manually changing it. Once again, YOU are the way it becomes dynamic.... – Dave Sep 20 '16 at 19:04
  • What @HDave means is that In certain cases, you may want JAVA_HOME to point to a specific java version, so making the update of JAVA_HOME dynamic may not be what you want. – Maciej Oct 09 '16 at 15:31
  • i like this answer. I tested with echo and see my path. However, I am confused why I am still getting JAVA_HOME environment variable is not set when I run mvn -version – Winnemucca Apr 11 '17 at 22:19
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    I wrote this answer back when I was more ignorant. Setting the variable as described will only affect your current terminal session, and will not be persisted. The correct way is to run

    update-alternatives --install <link> <name> <target> <priority>

    for example: update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/java java /usr/lib/jvm/default-runtime/bin/java 1

     – Erro May 14 '17 at 12:26
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This is the best option if you always want to use the latest one installed.
Nowadays (Ubuntu 23.10) you should probably have it installed through apt like:

sudo apt install default-jdk # or default-jre

In this case, you should find it at /usr/lib/jvm/default-java.
It's a symlink that points to whichever the current JVM is on the same folder.
So, just run this to add the environment as a separate file:

sudo nano /etc/environment.d/90java.conf

Add this line and save:

JAVA_HOME="/usr/lib/jvm/default-java"

Then reboot or login again, or source /etc/environment.d/90java.conf to load it on the current shell.

geekley
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