No com.sun.tools.javac in JDK7

Question

I'm using JDK7 and Eclipse Indiago in Windows 7 64-bit. I set environment variable JAVA_HOME to F:\JDK7 and add %JAVA_HOME%\bin in path. It's my sample code:

com.sun.tools.javac.Main m1 = new com.sun.tools.javac.Main();
m1.compile(source);

Error I get:

Type com.sun.tools cannot be resolved to a type

Why there is no com.sun.tools ? What's the problem ?

Answer 1

It looks like you are using Eclipse. By default Eclipse only imports JRE jars, not the ones from the JDK.

Solution 1:

1. Go to Eclipse preferences (on Windows: Window-->Preferences)
2. Open the preference Java-->Installed JREs
3. Select your JRE and press edit
4. Use "Add external jars" to include the tools.jar (found in JDK_HOME/lib)

Solution 2:

Edit your project build path and add an external library: tools.jar found in JDK_HOME/lib

Answer 2

javac is in the JDK bin directory, but not the JRE bin.

I had a similar problem and it turned out that by mistake I had set my JAVA_HOME variable to the JRE instead of the JDK, i.e.,

C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.8.0_60 instead of 
C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.8.0_60

Because I "knew" that I had copied the correct directory name, it took me ages to see those two different characters and fix the problem.

Answer 3

You are better off using the JavaCompiler API, rather than attemtping to call javac directly which is in tools.jar The API will add this for you if you use it.