How to run 32-bit Java on Mac OSX 10.7 Lion

Question

From my experience with Windows 7 (64-bit) and Java, a 32-bit JRE uses less memory and runs significantly faster than a 64-bit JRE (provided you don't need or benefit from having a lot of memory). I imagine the same thing is true for Mac OSX (and other platforms) as well.

I am currently running OSX Lion (v10.7), and I have installed the standard Java app. Under Java Preferences, I see "Java SE 6" from "Apple Inc." for both CPU-types "32-bit" and "64-bit" version "1.6.0_26-b03-383". I have changed the preferred order to put the 32-bit version on top of the 64-bit version, hoping that this would make the 32-bit version default.

But "java -version" still says:

java version "1.6.0_26"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_26-b03-383-11A511c)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 20.1-b02-383, mixed mode)

Is it possible to use the 32-bit version by default? And how?

Also, does anyone have experiences / comparative measurements regarding speed and memory efficiency between the 32/64-bit versions?

Solution 1

I found out now, that the 32-bit JVM can be explicitly launched using the -d32 switch.

On my machine, "java -version -d32" says:

java version "1.6.0_26"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_26-b03-383-11A511c)
Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 20.1-b02-383, mixed mode)

and although it doesn't say so, it is a 32-bit JVM.

Solution 2

The latest versions of Java 64-bit have -XX:+UseCompressedOops on by default (if your heap is less than 32 GB). This means 32-bit references are used in any case. The objects are still slightly bigger (4 bytes more overhead)

This article compares 32-bit, 64-bit with UseCompressedOops Java: How much memory do different arrays and collections consume

In terms of performance, I have found it to be 5-10% depending on what you are doing. If you are using a lot of long values it will be faster to use 64-bit.

Solution 3

Go into the "Java Preferences" App and drag java 32 bit to the top of the list.

Solution 4

Try the below steps:

1. Open terminal and go to /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/
2. Type ls -l to list all available Java versions
3. Enter sudo ln -fhsv CurrentJDK

Reference: Changing Java Version

Solution 5

in /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions I found version 1.6 installed and changed the path for java,javac to point to /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.6/home using environment alias rather than the default link found in /usr/bin/

View more solutions

Comments

[Ulrik]

This is somewhat useful info, but how do I start the 32-bit JVM? The referred article compares 32- and 64-bit JVMs (although perhaps on a different platform).

[Vishy]

In UNIX, I would open a shell and use the full path name to run the program I want (works for just about any program). Or I would change the default PATH to include the bin directory in Windows or Unix to use the 32-bit version (again nothing specific to Java)

[Ulrik]

In Windows or UNIX this is trivial, I know... All you need to know is the install location of the JRE for finding the java binary and perhaps setting a proper JAVA_HOME environment variable. On a Mac, the Java installation is really obscure, and I have not been able to locate the 32-bit installation. BUT I think the information shown in the Java Preferences GUI implies that a 32-bit version is present somehow... somewhere...

[Ulrik]

As I described, that is what I already tried - without seeing any difference.

[Kelvin]

+1 worked perfectly. I ran a java app and it showed up in Activity Monitor as Kind: Intel instead of Intel (64 bit). For some reason the arch command doesn't have any affect on java.