How to set the JAVA_HOME environment variable?

Solution Verified - Updated -

Environment

  • Red Hat middleware products
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
  • JDK

Issue

  • To run JBoss product, I need to set the JAVA_HOME environment variable, how to set it?
  • How do I set the JAVA_HOME environment variable?

Resolution

Generally JAVA_HOME is needed to run the Java-related applications, else the results may vary. To manually set up the JAVA_HOME environment variable follow the steps:

  1. Determine the correct value for JAVA_HOME. It should point to the directory containing a bin/java executable.
  2. As the user who will use OpenJDK or any JDK vendor, open the shell configuration file. For the bash shell, this file is /home/username/.bashrc.
  3. At the bottom of the file, type the following line, replacing the hypothetical path with the actual path to use on the operating system: export JAVA_HOME="/path/to/java/home".
  4. Save the file and reload the shell configuration, i.e, source ~/.bashrc
  5. The echo $JAVA_HOME command-line must return the complete path directory to java executable.

For detailed instructions, please see JBOSS Enterprise Application Platform Installation Guide: Install OpenJDK on Red Hat Enterprise Linux

For usage of alternatives command-line tool, see solution Switching JAVA_HOME using alternatives.

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