Maven "JAVA_HOME should point to a JDK not a JRE"

Question

I had the following command working fine with OpenJDK

mvn clean install

I then uninstalled OpenJDK and installed Oracle JDK 8, and now when I run mvn clean install

The JAVA_HOME environment variable is not defined correctly This environment variable is needed to run this program NB: JAVA_HOME should point to a JDK not a JRE

I'm running Linux Mint 19, I did run into a few Stackoverflow questions related to the issue. Most where related to Windows and some that were related to Linux. The Linux ones recommended to run

sudo update-alternatives --config java

but in my case I get

There is only one alternative in link group java (providing /usr/bin/java): /usr/lib/jvm/java-8-oracle/jre/bin/java Nothing to configure.

Any idea how I can make mvn clean install work again?

Solution

May be java path configuration missing. You can follow this steps:

1. Create or export JAVA_HOME="JDK directory" . Ex. "C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.8.0_65"
2. Create or export Path variable for PATH="JDK Bin DIrectory" . Ex. "C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.8.0_65\bin"
3. Run command java -version from your terminal.Check it is correct or not.

Then configure maven. follow these steps : You can try to install maven globaly. you can skip these steps if already configured.just for check run mvn --version command for checking maven is installed correctly.

1. Download maven from maven download link

2. Create or export M2_HOME="MAVEN ROOT LOCATION". Ex. : E:\SoftwareRepo\building tools\apache-maven-3.5.2

3. Create or export MAVEN bin folder location to PATH variable. For example: E:\SoftwareRepo\building tools\apache-maven-3.5.2\bin

4. Open terminal or cmd and run mvn --version to confirm maven is installed or not.

Comments

[david]

@ElliottFrisch I had accidentally pasted the wrong thing in my question. I fixed it. mvn clean install says The JAVA_HOME environment variable is not defined correctly This environment variable is needed to run this program NB: JAVA_HOME should point to a JDK not a JRE

[Scary Wombat]

Java home should be /usr/lib/jvm/java-8-oracle/jdk - check that it exists

[david]

@ScaryWombat I don't see jdk. I have bin lib src.zip COPYRIGHT LICENSE THIRDPARTYLICENSEREADME-JAVAFX.txt include man THIRDPARTYLICENSEREADME.txt javafx-src.zip README.html jre release

[Henry]

Do you have a directory /usr/lib/jvm/java-8-oracle/bin that contains among others java and javac? If yes, set JAVA_HOME to /usr/lib/jvm/java-8-oracle.

[david]

@Henry I do, how do I set JAVA_HOME?

[Scary Wombat]

Yes I do not think you have a JDK installed - try again

[david]

I just uninstalled Oracle Java and installed openjdk-11-jdk using apt. I am sure it's installed. But Maven still gives the same error

[Henry]

to set an evironment variable in the current shell use something like export JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/java-8-oracle. To set it permanently check the conventions of your Linux distribution.