Installing jdk 1.5 and setting path

[A. Jorge Garcia]

Every time I upgrade to a new version of java, I forget how to set the PATH variable.

I know you can use export, but I've manually editted the PATH var so as to remove the old path setting from

/usr/java/j2sdk1.4.2_08/bin/java

to

/usr/java/jdk-1_5_0_04/bin/java

TIA,
AJG

[Markus]

Not sure why you want to set the path for it. Have you tried: update-alternatives --config java
How are you installing java? With java-package?

[A. Jorge Garcia]

Well, I'm installing the self-extracting *.bin from java.sun.com

The instructions say to download it whereever, say /root

Then, cd to the dir you want to extract it to, say /usr/bin/java and execute the *.bin creating a subdir there.

Now, I want all the users on this server to use the new executables for java, javac, appletviewer and javadoc versions 1.5

I think I remember now, all I did in the past was
kwrite /etc/profile to edit the path line and then reboot or
source /etc/profile

BTW, is there a way to see the current path without opening the file /etc/profile?

Also, to uninstall the old jdk, do I simply remove its dir from the path and delete that dir and all its subdirs?

TIA,
AJG

[Markus]

Have you seen this? http://serios.net/content/debian/java/with-java-package.php
The point with java-package is that you create a .deb with it which can then be (un)installed with dpkg.
For a single user I sometimes just export the path manually with PATH=/some/new/path:$PATH && export PATH but you said you don't want this so how about:
sed -i 's/sbin/sbin:\/some\/new\/path/' /etc/profile
You can choose something else than sbin of course, I didn't even check if it's mentioned only once. Or you can echo the path somewhere.

[A. Jorge Garcia]

OK, I'll have to look at your link. However, I seem to remember having a problem the first time I installed java with a *.deb

Sun Micro provides the *.bin and a *.rpm so i used alien to convert the *.rpm to a *.deb and tried to install it with kpackage. However, the *.deb generated was incomplete. I figured alien couldn't handle such a large file....

Thanx for the help,
AJG

[Markus]

I didn't see a question there so I neglected to answer, perhaps I should have :). Did it work? As you probably noticed java-package uses the bin from sun as well, so it isn't that different except that you get a deb out of it.

[A. Jorge Garcia]

Thanx for your concern. However, I have to wait until I get back to school after Labor day to play around with this.

Regards,
AJG

[Markus]

That was fast :)