Mac users installing or updating to the latest version Java are finding their shinies infected with the 'much loved' Ask Toolbar. This thing returns poor, ad-infested results, and silently changes.
The following are the system requirements for installing the JDK and the JRE on macOS:
Any Intel-based computer running macOS.
Administrator privileges.
You cannot install Java for a single user. Installing the JDK and JRE on macOS is performed on a systemwide basis for all users. Administrator privileges are required to install the JDK and JRE on macOS.
When you install the JDK, it also installs the JRE. However, the system will not replace the current JRE with a lower version.
To determine the current JRE version installed on your system, see Determining the JRE Version Installed on macOS. To install an earlier version of the JRE, you must first uninstall the current version. See Uninstalling the JRE on macOS.
When you install the JRE, you can install only one JRE on your system at a time. The system will not install a JRE that has an earlier version than the current version.
To determine the current JRE version installed on your system, see Determining the JRE Version Installed on macOS. To install an earlier version of the JRE, you must first uninstall the current version. See Uninstalling the JRE on macOS.
Note:
Installing a JRE from Oracle will not update java -version
symlinks or add java
to your path. To do this, you must install the JDK.
This topic includes the following sections:
The following are the system requirements for installing the JDK on macOS:
Any Intel-based computer running macOS.
Administrator privileges.
You cannot install Java for a single user. Installing the JDK on macOS is performed on a systemwide basis for all users. Administrator privileges are required to install the JDK on macOS.
When starting a Java application through the command line, the system uses the default JDK.
You can determine which version of the JDK is the default by entering java -version
in a Terminal window. If the installed version is 13 Interim 0, Update 0, and Patch 0, then you see a string that includes the text 13
. For example:
To run a different version of Java, either specify the full path, or use the java_home
tool. For example:
$ /usr/libexec/java_home -v 13 --exec javac -version
.dmg
file, jdk-13.
interim.update.patch_osx-x64_bin.dmg
.Before the file can be downloaded, you must accept the license agreement.
.dmg
file to start it..pkg
file. JDK 13.pkg
icon to start the installation application..dmg
file if you want to save disk space. Note:
Do not attempt to uninstall Java by removing the Java tools from /usr/bin
. This directory is part of the system software and any changes will be reset by Apple the next time that you perform an update of the OS.
/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines
.rm
command as a root user or by using the sudo
tool:/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk-13.interim.update.patch.jdk
For example, to uninstall 13 Interim 0 Update 0 Patch 0:
$ rm -rf jdk-13.jdk
This topic provides answers for the following frequently asked questions about installing JDK on macOS computers.
1. How do I find out which version of Java is the system default?
When you run a Java application from the command line, it uses the default JDK. If you do not develop Java applications, then you do not need to worry about this. See Determining the Default JDK Version on macOS.
2. How do I uninstall Java?
See Uninstalling the JDK on macOS.
3. After installing Java for macOS 2012-006, can I continue to use Apple's Java 6 alongside the macOS JDK for Java 13?
If you want to continue to develop with Java 6 using command-line, then you can modify the startup script for your favorite command environment. For bash, use this:
$ export JAVA_HOME=`/usr/libexec/java_home -v 13`
Some applications use /usr/bin/java
to call Java. After installing Java for macOS 2012-006, /usr/bin/java
will find the newest JDK installed, and will use that for all of the Java-related command-line tools in /usr/bin
. You may need to modify those applications to find Java 6, or contact the developer for a newer version of the application.
4. What happened to the Java Preferences app in Application Utilities?
The Java Preferences app was part of the Apple Java installation and is not used by Oracle Java. Therefore, macOS releases from Apple that do not include Apple Java will not include Java Preferences.