Switch java versions in command line using java_home

Let’s assume that you have the installed java7 and java8 on your mac.

Now you need to setup the following aliases (in ~/.bash_profile):

alias j7='export JAVA_HOME=`/usr/libexec/java_home -v 1.7`'
alias j8='export JAVA_HOME=`/usr/libexec/java_home -v 1.8`'

java_home util will pick up the latest (corresponding) java version from /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines dir and will update all necessary symlinks and env variables.

That’s it!