Bash script to switch java version

The following bash script can be used to quickly switch between your installed JDKs on the command line. This can be useful when you need to run a Java application with a specific java version.

$ vi ~/bin/switch_java_to.sh

#!/bin/bash

JDK6=/System//Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/1.6.0.jdk/Contents/Home/
JDK7=/Library//Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.7.0_25.jdk/Contents/Home/
JDK8=/Library//Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0.jdk/Contents/Home/

case "$1" in
        "6")
                export JAVA_HOME=$JDK6
                ;;
        "7")
                export JAVA_HOME=$JDK7
                ;;
        "8")
                export JAVA_HOME=$JDK8
                ;;
        *)
                echo "Unknown JDK version! Specify 6, 7 or 8!"
                ;;
esac
export JDK_HOME=$JAVA_HOME

echo "Calling 'java' to output the currently used java version"
java -version

After you made this file executable via chmod u+x ~/bin/switch_java_to.sh you can run it like . ~/bin/switch_java_to.sh 7 or source ~/bin/switch_java_to.sh 7.

NOTE: You'll need the source or . operator to have the variables set in your current shell context!

Happy coding.

Related protips:

How To Check If JDK Is 32-bit or 64-bit?