macos - Switching between Java 7 and 8 in OS X

I have installed Java-8. Now I wanted to go back to Java-7 by default so I type in...

/usr/libexec/java_home -v 1.7.0_40 --exec java -version
/usr/libexec/java_home -v 1.7.0_40 --exec javac -version

But I still see...

java -version
java version "1.8.0-ea"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0-ea-b108)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 25.0-b50, mixed mode)

This does work...

export JAVA_HOME=/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.7.0_40.jdk/Contents/Home

But I would like a more permanent solution.

Anyone see what I am doing wrong?

Answer

Easily Switch Versions

1. 
   

   Install versions 1.6, 1.7, 1.8 in any order. Note: I believe the last one installed determines which one will be used for browser plugins, I'm not going to care about changing those below.

   
   


2. 
   

   Then, add to your ~/.bashrc or ~/.bash_profile, or where ever:

   
   

   #!/bin/bash
   export JAVA_HOME=$(/usr/libexec/java_home -v 1.7)
   
   setjdk() {
      export JAVA_HOME=$(/usr/libexec/java_home -v $1)
   }
   



3. 
   

   Verify the change via java -version

   
   

   $ java -version
   java version "1.7.0_51"
   Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.7.0_51-b13)
   Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 24.51-b03, mixed mode)
   
   $ setjdk 1.6
   $ java -version
   java version "1.6.0_65"
   Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_65-b14-462-11M4609)
   Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 20.65-b04-462, mixed mode)
   
   $ setjdk 1.8
   $ java -version
   java version "1.8.0"
   Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0-b132)
   Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 25.0-b70, mixed mode)
   

Obviously the change is only for the duration of the shell. But you can see where you can set it globally now.