Set $JAVA_HOME in Linux

$JAVA_HOME an environment variable. It is the root path of the JRE or JDK which some applications and services use to access Java.

I know that Java is installed java -version but its not in the path echo $JAVA_HOME, the output is empty.

Configure for single user

• Open the shell script in your favorite editor eg. vim ~/.zshrc vim ~/.bashrc

• Add this line to export the path the the corresponding directory export JAVA_HOME=/usr/bin/java which can be determined using which java if you are unsure.

• Add the path to $PATH export $PATH=$PATH:$JAVA_HOME

• Save the file.

• Source the file in your terminal eg. source ~/.zshrc or source ~/.bashrc

• Execute echo $JAVA_HOME to verify the output.

Configure for all users

• Login a root or use sudo to execute commands.

• Execute bash sudo bash

• Edit vim /etc/bashrc or vim /etc/profile

• Add export JAVA_HOME=/usr/bin/java

• Save the file.

• Source source /etc/bashrc or source /etc/profile

• Echo echo $JAVA_HOME

• exit to exit the sudo bash terminal.

References

• What is the purpose of .bashrc and how does it work? - UNIX StackExchange
• Setting JAVA_HOME - Atlassian Opsgenie
• How to Set JAVA_HOME / PATH variables Under Linux Bash Profile - nixCraft