update-alternatives just for one user

Question

I'm using a shared server. On that server different versions of Java are installed:

  Selection    Path                                      Priority   Status
------------------------------------------------------------
  0            /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/bin/java   1061      auto mode
* 1            /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/bin/java   1061      manual mode
  2            /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/jre/bin/java       63        manual mode

I would like to choose the Second options, but if I tried to do that it complains that I do not have the permissions (I'm not root).

Is there a way to do that in "user-space"?

Can the Root user make this preference works only for me?

Solution

On Debian and derivates, you should probably use update-java-alternatives. Anyway, all those tools are system related, not user related. If you want to use a different java, simply put those lines in your ~/.profile:

JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun
JRE_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/jre
PATH=$JAVA_HOME/bin:"$PATH"
export JAVA_HOME JRE_HOME

Comments

[Sam Brightman]

The accepted answer is probably preferrable here but if you genuinely need to use your own alternatives see my answer at ServerFault.