how to set Java 7u9 to be the default JVM on mac osx 10.7.5 (original) (raw)

Scott Kovatch scott.kovatch at oracle.com
Mon Nov 5 10:31:10 PST 2012

On Nov 5, 2012, at 8:51 AM, Rick Hillegas <rick.hillegas at oracle.com> wrote:

I am trying to use Java 7u9 as the default JVM on my macbook pro (running osx 10.7.5). I haven't figured out how to configure my machine so that a Java 7 app will come up when I click on its icon. I would appreciate your advice about what I need to do to configure my machine.

The short answer is, if you want to use Java 7 in a double-clickable application you have to bundle a JRE with your app with AppBundler (http://java.net/projects/appbundler) or javafxpackager, which is part of the JDK. Apple's bundled application support is private API, and not available to Oracle's JRE.

You can bundle your app so it uses the shared Java 7 runtime.

When I click on the app, I get a popup window telling me that the system couldn't find a 1.7 version of Java. The popup window has a button labelled "Open Java Preferences", but when I click on that button, xyzzy, nothing happens. However, the app does come up if I click on its jar file after navigating to it via Finder's "Show Package Contents" option.

Right -- double-clicking a JAR launches a helper application which does the equivalent of 'java -jar '. And since /usr/bin/java finds either the Java 7 JRE or the newest JDK if the 7 JRE isn't available, your app runs in Java 7.

According to the following webpage, versions of osx like mine are supposed to default to the highest version of Java which the os can find: http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-137277-57533880-263/java-preferences-missing-after-latest-os-x-java-update/. But I clearly haven't figured out how to let the os know what that version is.

I re-read that page, and I think this sentence is a bit confusing:

"In addition, the various Java tools Apple includes (such as command-line tools) are configured with reference to the Java runtime with the highest version number, ensuring that Java 7 or later will be used once it is installed, regardless of any other runtimes that may be present."

Here, 'Java runtime' means 'JDK'. The Java 7 JDK (7u9), which you installed, is usable from a command line, but the JRE, which it also installed, is not.

-- Scott K.

Scott Kovatch scott.kovatch at oracle.com Santa Clara/Pleasanton, CA

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