How to Uninstall or Remove JDK in Mac OS X

 ·  · 

Tips on how to uninstall JDK or Java SE in Mac OS X.

 

1 How to see JDK versions already installed

The java_home -v command will list all JDKs already installed in your Mac OS.

$ /usr/libexec/java_home -v

Output after executing above command may be similar with following text, which means there was two versions of JDK installed, 1.8.0_121 and 1.7.0_79.

Matching Java Virtual Machines (1):
    1.8.0_121, x86_64:  "Java SE 8" /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_121.jdk/Contents/Home
    1.7.0_79, x86_64:   "Java SE 7" /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.7.0_79.jdk/Contents/Home

/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_121.jdk/Contents/Home

 

2 How to locate JDK installation folder

Above java_home -v command has already told you where JDKs were installed.

$ cd /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines
$ ls
jdk1.8.0_121.jdk    jdk1.7.0_79.jdk

 

3 How to check which JDK version is currently used by Mac OS

Using java -version or javac -version to show the JDK version used by system.

$ java -version

java version "1.8.0_121"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_121-b13)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 25.121-b13, mixed mode)

$ javac -version
javac 1.8.0_121

 

4 How to switch JDK version

Appending following line to your ~/.profile file will switch system's JDK to 1.8 version.

export JAVA_HOME=`/usr/libexec/java_home -v 1.8`

 

5 How to uninstall JDK

If you decide to remove a JDK version, just simply delete its installation folder.

$ sudo rm -rf /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.7.0_79.jdk

or

$ cd /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines
$ sudo rm -rf ./jdk1.7.0_79.jdk

 

6 Homebrew or MacPorts

If your JDK was installed using Homebrew or MacPorts, please uninstall your JDK using the same way.

javamac