java - Making sure JAVA_HOME is correctly set

Question

Pretty new to Java and also to Mac ... I want to make sure JAVA_HOME is set so in other programs I can use its path. So I did some Googling and here is what I got:

If I enter /usr/libexec/java_home in terminal I get this: /System/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/1.6.0.jdk/Contents/Home but if I enter echo $JAVA_HOME in terminal, I don't get anything back.

Can you please tell me what is going on in here?

Thanks.

Answer 1

JAVA_HOME isn't set by default on OSX. You can resolve this by opening terminal and executing the following:

echo "export JAVA_HOME=`/usr/libexec/java_home`" >> ~/.profile    
. ~/.profile

This will cause JAVA_HOME to be set on startup (rather than just the current session), and immediately add it.