export JAVA_HOME with spaces in Cygwin

Question

I'm trying to set my JAVA_HOME in Cygwin with this command:

export JAVA_HOME="/cygdrive/c/Program Files/Java/jdk1.7.0_10"

But when I do cd $JAVA_HOME, I'd get this error:

$ cd $JAVA_HOME
-bash: cd: /cygdrive/c/Program: No such file or directory

I tried quoting, and escaping the space (ie., \), but none worked. Any idea what else would?

Thanks,

Solution 1

I faced this problem too and I saw many posts but nothing really worked. There is a small trick that I did and things started working.

My JAVA_HOME was set to C:/Program Files/Java/jdk1.7.0_23. The problem was with Program Files directory and I was getting the same error.

In Windows there is a short name created for every directory with a space which is without a space. You can see it by running dir /X command on the command prompt. The Short name for Program Files was PROGRA~1.

In the Windows env variable through My Computer I changed the JAVA_HOME to C:/PROGR~1/Java/jdk1.7.0_23 and in hadoop-env.sh I changed JAVA_HOME to /cygdrv/c/PROGRA~1/Java/jdk1.7.0_23.

It worked fine.

Solution 2

You set JAVA_HOME correctly. Now let's cd correctly too.

cd "$JAVA_HOME"

Solution 3

To avoid using the tedious Windows environment variables, and also use the actual path string copied from Windows explorer, I suggest adding the following to your startup script:

             TMP=`cygpath -sw "C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.8.0_31"`
export JAVA_HOME=`cygpath -u $TMP`

The first cygpath invocation obtains a short, windows path; the second converts it to unix format, which works fine in cygwin.

This will also now work fine:

$ cd $JAVA_HOME

Solution 4

Try to use short name to avoid a space in a path.

"C:\Program Files" should have short name C:\Progra~1 (you can verify it using DOS dir command or entering it into address bar in file explorer).

Set your JAVA_HOME this way:

export JAVA_HOME="/cygdrive/c/Progra~1/Java/jdk1.7.0_10"

Solution 5

Try using the DOS subst command to take the spaces of the JAVA_HOME path name. Assuming drive J; is not mounted or otherwise used.

In a DOS shell

subst j: "C:/Program Files/Java/jdk1.7.0_45"

J: is now an abbreviation for C:/Program Files/Java/jdk1.7.0_45

You can now cd to J:

now run Cygwin and

export JAVA_HOME="J:"

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Comments

[Anton Kovalenko]

What about ls "$JAVA_HOME"? And what's the new error message when it's not working?

[Anton Kovalenko]

And btw, is it 64-bit system? There is some kind of redirection of Program Files to Program Files (x86) involved, maybe cygwin 32-bit stuff just doesn't see your real Program Files at all.

[user1508893]

Yes, there is a Program Files (x86), but I do have stuff in Program Files, too (for historic reasons). And the ls command returns the same error the cd command does.

[Anton Kovalenko]

You posted your command and error message when you cd without double quotes. Now post the same for cd with double quotes. Also try to check it element by element: does ls "/cygrive/c/Program Files/" show Java subdirectory? What about ls "/cygrive/c/Program Files/Java/"? (The main thing to understand is that we already solved the problem with variable by using double quotes. What remains is a problem with filesystem).

[sheikhjabootie]

+1 - Just a note - you have to restart your cygwin session for the modified environment variable to be detected.

[Dave Richardson]

This solution is not much use when the cd command is embedded in a script - for example one that starts tomcat. I don't want to edit tomcat scripts to get it working, a better solution is to use the windows short name although I feel that having to do this highlights a shortcoming in Cygwin more than anything else.

[Dave Richardson]

Note that "C:\Program Files (x86)" is "/cygdrive/c/PROGRA~2"

[Mingtao Sun]

Great solution! Thanks. I had to switch between Java 8 and Java 11, which is a nightmare on Windows. This post saved my day!.

[dan.m was user2321368]

And if you can't choose your install directory, use cygwin to make a soft-link, where the link's path has no spaces, and set JAVA_HOME to that.