I do a lot of development using Java 7 and recently needed to start using Java 8.

The quickest way I know to update to the latest Java uses homebrew:

brew tap caskroom/cask

brew install brew-cask

brew cask install java

I now need an easy way to switch back and forth between Java 7 & 8.

Adding this to your ~/.bash_profile or ~/.profile does the trick:

function setjdk() {

  if [ $# -ne 0 ]; then

   removeFromPath '/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Home/bin'

   if [ -n "${JAVA_HOME+x}" ]; then

    removeFromPath $JAVA_HOME

   fi

   export JAVA_HOME=`/usr/libexec/java_home -v $@`

   export PATH=$JAVA_HOME/bin:$PATH

  fi

 }

 function removeFromPath() {

  export PATH=$(echo $PATH | sed -E -e "s;:$1;;" -e "s;$1:?;;")

 }

# set your default version

setjdk 1.7

– Source.

This script cunningly uses /usr/libexec/java_home -v x.y to do the hard lifting.

I can now easily swap between Java versions as seen below:

david$ setjdk 1.6

david$ 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)

david$ setjdk 1.7

david$ java -version

java version "1.7.0_71"

Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.7.0_71-b14)

Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 24.71-b01, mixed mode)
david$ setjdk 1.8

david$ java -version

java version "1.8.0_51"

Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_51-b16)

Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 25.51-b03, mixed mode)

This is a nice simple way to swap versions and is at least good enough for now.

Aside: I also tried out jenv which promises much, but wouldn't accept my versions of Java when I tried it out.