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Netbeans and default JDK

Since Netbeans 6.1 for Mac OS X still comes with JDK 1.5 and I wanted 1.6 I went to Tools > Java Platforms and added 1.6 (/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.6/Home). But if I wanted to change 1.6 to the default JDK it just wasn’t possible from within Netbeans itself. Browsing the Help-section I found this interesting piece:

You can set the IDE’s default platform by running the IDE with the –jdkhome switch on the command line or by entering the path to the JDK in the netbeans_j2sdkhome property of your INSTALLATION_DIRECTORY/etc/netbeans.conf file.

Since I didn’t wanted to start Netbeans with an extra parameter I went to my Applications folder and right clicked on Netbeans 6.1.app choosing “Show Package contents”. Navigating to Contents/Resources/etc/ I found the said netbeans.conf. Inside there was this line:

# Default location of JDK, can be overridden by using --jdkhome < dir >: netbeans_jdkhome=/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.5/Home

Just changed it too /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.6/Home and restarted Netbeans et voila: 1.6 was the default JDK.

Update: In Netbeans 6.5 netbeans.conf can be found in Contents/Resources/NetBeans/etc

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 4th, 2008 at 14:13 and is filed under Programming. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

silverprince Says:
June 23rd, 2008 at 15:08

This is just what I was looking for.
I have been pulling my hair out for two hours.
Thank you for sharing this.

silverprince
sydney, australia

the sarcastic programmer Says:
July 6th, 2008 at 21:53

Thanks for the tip! With all the wonderful things that NetBeans can do, its amazing how a simple thing like setting the default JDK is overlooked. I use NetBeans for my java class I teach and having to change the JDK in the properties every time is REALLY annoying (almost all my students use a PC to write their code, but I use a Mac for marking).
I love the internet.

mma Says:
July 20th, 2008 at 23:37

I find this blog very interesting, i will be here everyday till now. Greetings

Babble On Says:
November 20th, 2008 at 13:42

Excellent tip - this is exactly what I was after (most searches turned up results telling me how to add another platform to build/compile to - but not how to change the platform NetBeans actually runs on). Strange that you can’t do this within the IDE itself - but you’ve saved me some time! Thanks.

rizwan Says:
November 29th, 2008 at 7:15

thanks a lot. this is what i was looking for. i tried to figure out the problem by view so many web sites by googling but no luck until i found this. thanks once again.
razi

Brian O'Sullivan Says:
February 14th, 2009 at 0:45

Thank you so much. I am a .Net developer trying to learn Java. I got an excellent book ‘Murach’s Java SE6′ but until your comment I had to go changing settings for every project!!! Thank you so much!!!

Osagie Says:
February 21st, 2009 at 23:01

Thanks. I needed this

Awon Says:
April 5th, 2009 at 4:18

Thnks!

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