Java is a programming language that is used for enterprise software development, web development, building highly scalable solutions, working with big data, and a lot more. As a beginner, you may find Java syntax a little bit difficult, but it's more readable, unlike Python syntax.
This guide will help you to install Java on your macOS machine, probably a Macbook, step by step, and once you have Java installed, you can start to learn Java following our free tutorials.
Practice Java by writing Java Programs and execute code in your browser using our Java Compiler.
So let's start installing Java on your Macbook.
Step 1: Download Java
You can download Java from oracle's official website. The current latest version of Java is Java 17, but you can find other supported versions too on Oracle's website.
Download Java 17 version for Mac
You can also download the Java 11 version, which is one of the most popular versions of Java right now.
Step 2: Start installation
Once you have downloaded the .dmg file for Java, click on the file to start the installation. The macOS will start the installation by unpacking the .dmg file.
Double click on the JDK 17.0.2.pkg file, or whatever version you have downloaded, double click on it to begin the installation.
Click on the Continue button to start.
You will be informed about the disk space requirement for a successful installation. Click on Install to proceed. You will be asked for your password to initiate the installation, provide the Macbook password and proceed.
I am using macOS Catalina (version 10.15) and during the installation, I was not asked for choosing a location to install Java.
The installation will hardly take a minute.
You will see a success message when the installation gets completed successfully.
And with this, the Java installation is completed. Click on Close, and macOS may ask you if you want to eject the loaded .dmg file and move the installer .dmg file to Bin, you can click on Ok to do so.
Step 3: Verify Installation
To verify, whether Java is installed properly or not, open the Terminal application. And write the command java -version, and you should get the following output.
Now you have Java 17.0.2 version active in your Macbook.
Step 4: Handling Multiple Java Versions
What if you have multiple versions of Java in your Macbook? In that case, we can set the path for the version to be used in the Terminal Shell.
For example, if you have Java 15 and now Java 17 version installed. Now Macbook will be confused about which version to use. So if you want to set a version as the default Java version, you can do so easily.
To find the current default version of Java or to find the Java home path, run the following command in macOS Catalina and later,
/usr/libexec/java_home
/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk-17.0.2.jdk/Contents/Home
And to see all the versions, currently installed in your Macbook, run the following command,
/usr/libexec/java_home -V
Matching Java Virtual Machines (2):
17.0.2, x86_64: "Java SE 17.0.2" /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk-17.0.2.jdk/Contents/Home
1.8.0_51, x86_64: "Java SE 8" /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_51.jdk/Contents/Home
Now, in this case, by default, the latest version of Java is being used. But what if you want to use the older version?
echo 'export PATH="/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_51.jdk/Contents/Home:$PATH"' >> ~/.zshrc
% source ~/.zshrc
and running the above command will update your shell and by default, Java version 8 will be used.
Conclusion:
So this is all about installing Java in macOS (Macbook). Now you know how to install Java on your Macbook, how to check if Java is installed properly or not, and how to handle multiple versions of Java by updating the environment variable.
