How to install Java in an Azure DevOps pipeline?

Question

One step in my Azure DevOps pipeline requires Java to be installed on the agent.

I found the "Java Tool Installer" task here:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/pipelines/tasks/tool/java-tool-installer?view=azure-devops

This looks, however, more like a SDK installer. I only need a Java runtime environment. I am looking for something like the Python installer task:

steps:
- task: UsePythonVersion@0
  inputs:
    versionSpec: '3.6'

Is there anything for Java getting close to this?

Answer 1

Is there anything for Java getting close to this?

Test with the Python installer task, this task is used to specify a specific python version via setting the environment.

To achieve a similar purpose with Java, you could set the Java_Home and Path variable during the runtime.

You could add a powershell task at the first step.

Here is an example:

- task: PowerShell@2
  inputs:
    targetType: 'inline'
    script: |
      echo "##vso[task.setvariable variable=JAVA_HOME]$(JAVA_HOME_11_X64)"
      echo "##vso[task.setvariable variable=PATH]$(JAVA_HOME_11_X64)\bin;$(PATH)"

The $(JAVA_HOME_11_X64) variable is an environment variable.

You could check this variable with the script env | sort. Then the supported value will list in the output.

For example:

In this case, the JAVA_HOME variable will be set as the expected value.

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

Since Azure supports Docker, I would simply go for docker:

trigger:
- main

pr:
- main
- releases/*

pool:
  vmImage: 'ubuntu-20.04'

container: adoptopenjdk:latest

steps:
- script: ./gradlew check