java - Moving from JDK 1.7 to JDK 1.8 on Ubuntu

Question

I am on UBUNTU. JDK version currently installed is:

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)

the configuration being installed is:

sudo update-alternatives --config java
There is only one alternative in link group java 
(providing /usr/bin/java):     /usr/lib/jvm/java-7-oracle/jre/bin/java

I downloaded the latest tar.gz archive of JDK 1.8.

How can I easily install JDK 1.8 from tar.gz overriding/uninstalling the JDK 1.7 currently installed? Or even without explicitly use the tar.gz.

Answer 1

This is what I do on debian - I suspect it should work on ubuntu (amend the version as required + adapt the folder where you want to copy the JDK files as you wish, I'm using /opt/jdk):

wget --header "Cookie: oraclelicense=accept-securebackup-cookie" http://download.oracle.com/otn-pub/java/jdk/8u71-b15/jdk-8u71-linux-x64.tar.gz
sudo mkdir /opt/jdk
sudo tar -zxf jdk-8u71-linux-x64.tar.gz -C /opt/jdk/
rm jdk-8u71-linux-x64.tar.gz

Then update-alternatives:

sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/java java /opt/jdk/jdk1.8.0_71/bin/java 1
sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/javac javac /opt/jdk/jdk1.8.0_71/bin/javac 1

Select the number corresponding to the /opt/jdk/jdk1.8.0_71/bin/java when running the following commands:

sudo update-alternatives --config java
sudo update-alternatives --config javac

Finally, verify that the correct version is selected:

java -version
javac -version