how to switch java version on Mac OS 10.8.4

Question

I need to switch the Java version on my Mac OS X 10.8.4 but am not sure how, the version I have right now is 1.6.0_51 but i want to switch to 1.6.0_45:

$java -version
java version "1.6.0_51"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_51-b11-457-11M4509)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 20.51-b01-457, mixed mode)

/usr/libexec/java_home -v 1.6.0_43
Unable to find any JVMs matching version "1.6.0_43".
/System/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/1.6.0.jdk/Contents/Home

I assume there is no such a version as 1.6.0_43 on my mac? how can install it and then switch to it? thanks!

Answer 1

To see which versions you have installed use:

/usr/libexec/java_home -V

For example shows this for me:

15:04 $ /usr/libexec/java_home -V
Matching Java Virtual Machines (2):
    10.0.1, x86_64: "Java SE 10.0.1"    /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk-10.0.1.jdk/Contents/Home
    1.7.0_80, x86_64:   "Java SE 7" /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.7.0_80.jdk/Contents/Home

Then simply in your ~/.bashrc or ~/.bash_profile:

$ export JAVA_HOME=$(/usr/libexec/java_home -v 1.7.0_80)

As for getting version 1.6 (or nearly any prev version) I think that as of this date (Nov 2018) you will be out of luck. I can get to https://jdk.java.net/8/ but any earlier version is a 404 (11 is the latest). I'm sure you could search a bit more though as I understand it, once they (Oracle) have discontinued a version, they no longer maintain it since it could be a security risk.

Once you have DL a Mac .dmg, I'm sure it installs in the correct location and will be visible with java_home.

There is information at https://stackoverflow.com/a/47699905/1019307 that discusses using homebrew to install Java and it mentions Java6 (the post is dated Dec 2017).

Answer 2

As the description says on this website: "...it’s really a pain to switch between this Java version by shell..." so this person made a tool to do the switching. Since I don't know your reasoning (if you really have to do it via the command line) it may not be overly useful but a quick google search revealed this downloadable tool from their website.