Post-installation checking and configuration on Linux

After installing a Java SDK, it is advisable to check that it is ready to use. You can do this by running these two commands, using your normal user account:

$ java -version
$ javac -version

These commands print out the version information for the JRE and JDK (respectively) that are on your shell’s command search path. Look for the JDK / JRE version string.

• If either of the above commands fails, saying “command not found”, then the JRE or JDK is not on the search path at all; go to Configuring PATH directly below.
• If either of the above commands displays a different version string to what you were expecting, then either your search path or the “alternatives” system needs adjusting; go to Checking Alternatives
• If the correct version strings are displayed, you are nearly done; skip to Checking JAVA_HOME

Configuring PATH directly

If there is no java or javac on the search path at the moment, then the simple solution is to add it to your search path.

First, find where you installed Java; see Where was Java installed? below if you have doubts.

Next, assuming that bash is your command shell, use a text editor to add the following lines to the end of either ~/.bash_profile or ~/.bashrc (If you use Bash as your shell).

JAVA_HOME=<installation directory>
PATH=$JAVA_HOME/bin:$PATH

export JAVA_HOME
export PATH

… replacing <installation directory> with the pathname for your Java installation directory. Note that the above assumes that the installation directory contains a bin directory, and the bin directory contains the java and javac commands that you are trying to use.

Next, source the file that you just edited, so that the environment variables for your current shell are updated.

$ source ~/.bash_profile

Next, repeat the java and javac version checks. If there are still problems, use which java and which javac to verify that you have updates the environment variables correctly.

Finally, logout and login again so that the updated environment variables ptopagate to all of your shells. You should now be done.

Checking Alternatives

If java -version or javac -version worked but gave an unexpected version number, you need to check where the commands are coming from. Use which and ls -l to find this out as follows:

$ ls -l `which java`

If the output looks like this, :

lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 22 Jul 30 22:18 /usr/bin/java -> /etc/alternatives/java

then the alternatives version switching is being used. You needs to decide whether to continue using it, or simply override it by setting the PATH directly.

• Configuring and Switching Java versions on Linux using alternatives
• See “Configuring PATH directly” above.

Where was Java installed?

Java can be installed in a variety of places, depending on the installation method.

• The Oracle RPMs put the Java installation in “/usr/java”.
• On Fedora, the default location is “/usr/lib/jvm”.
• If Java was installed by hand from ZIP or JAR files, the installation could be anywhere.

If you are having difficultly finding the installation directory, We suggest that you use find (or slocate) to find the command. For example:

$ find / -name java -type f 2> /dev/null

This gives you the pathnames for all files called java on your system. (The redirection of standard error to “/dev/null” suppresses messages about files and directories that you can’t access.)