What is the source of the discrepancy in Java versions: Java 6 (in Terminal, Eclipse) and Java 7 (in Java Control panel)?

Question

Eclipse complains: JRE version is 1.6.0; version 1.7.0 or later is needed to run Google Plugin for Eclipse.

In the Terminal, java concurs:

> java -version
java version "1.6.0_65"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_65-b14-462-11M4609)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 20.65-b04-462, mixed mode)

But in System Preferences \ Java \ the Java Control Panel says Your system has the recommended version of Java: Java 7 Update 51

and points to /Library/Internet Plug-Ins/JavaAppletPlugin.plugin/Contents/Home/bin/java.

Eclipse preferences show that the installed JRE is at: /System/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/1.6.0.jdk/Contents/Home

To point Eclipse to Java 7 (1.7.0), it's enough to change the preference:

What is the source of the discrepancy in Java versions? Is this an instance of having different PATHs between the command-line Mac and the windowed-Mac?

Edit

If I edit /usr/local/adt-bundle-mac-x86_64/eclipse/Eclipse.app/Contents/MacOS/eclipse.ini by adding

-vm
"/Library/Internet Plug-Ins/JavaAppletPlugin.plugin/Contents/Home/bin/java"

Eclipse refuses to start.

And yet this is indeed 1.7:

> "/Library/Internet Plug-Ins/JavaAppletPlugin.plugin/Contents/Home/bin/java" -version
java version "1.7.0_51"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.7.0_51-b13)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 24.51-b03, mixed mode)

Answer 1

If you want to be certain of the JVM that is used to run Eclipse, you need to specify it in your eclipse.ini file, according to these instructions.