Bazel: Launcher can't find Java 8 when installer runs

[kchodorow]

It is both the Java on my path and set in JAVA_HOME, not sure what's going on here:

$ java -version
openjdk version "1.8.0-google-v7"
OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0-google-v7-112381132-112193401)
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (build 25.51-b03, mixed mode)
$ which java
/usr/local/buildtools/java/jdk/bin/java
$ export JAVA_HOME=/usr/local/buildtools/java/jdk
$ sudo ./bazel-0.2.0rc1-installer-linux-x86_64.sh 
Bazel installer
---------------

# Release 0.2.0 (2016-02-18)
...
## Build informations
   - [Build log](http://ci.bazel.io/job/Bazel/JAVA_VERSION=1.8,PLATFORM_NAME=linux-x86_64/367/)
   - [Commit](https://github.com/bazelbuild/bazel/commit/b78baea)
Uncompressing......Java version is 1.7.0_95 while at least 1.8 is needed.
Please set JAVA_HOME.

[damienmg]

The message is coming from Bazel launcher.

[damienmg]

Root has the wrong installation:

 $ sudo bash -c 'export | grep JAVA_HOME'
declare -x SUDO_COMMAND="/bin/bash -c export | grep JAVA_HOME"
$ sudo bash -c 'java -version'
java version "1.7.0_95"
OpenJDK Runtime Environment (IcedTea 2.6.4) (7u95-2.6.4-0ubuntu0.14.04.1)
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (build 24.95-b01, mixed mode)

Not sure we can do anything here. Closing as WAI, feel free to re-open if you have an idea on how to do better.

[andrewharp]

Hi, what was the workaround for this? I'm having the exact same issue, have openjdk 1.8.0 installed, but the installer wants to use 1.7.0_95, despite my having set JAVA_HOME otherwise.

[kchodorow]

You can export the variable and then use sudo -E, see http://stackoverflow.com/a/8633575 for an example (and some other options).

[andrewharp]

That did the trick, thanks!

[Independent-Scientist]

The thread might be closed already but for those struggling with the problem, if you $ "strace bazel", you will see from where the program is actually fetching the java binary, like: "access("/usr/lib64/jvm/java/bin/java", X_OK) = 0" in my case. After that it was easy to correct the problem on my system.
Thanks

[ikttan]

I solved mine using "sudo update-alternatives --config javac" and set it to the right option. (Note: it is for javac not java).

[learning-more]

I solved mine using these steps:
http://dataracer.io/docs/2017/01/27/java-macos.html (website down)
Set JAVA_HOME environment variable. Add JAVA_HOME to your ~.bash_profile:
export JAVA_HOME=$(/usr/libexec/java_home -v 1.8.0_131)

Test Java. Verify JAVA_HOME is set:
echo $JAVA_HOME.
/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_131.jdk/Contents/Home

'java -version'
java version "1.8.0_131"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_131-b11)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 25.131-b11, mixed mode)

[paulraines68]

For those running RHEL/CentOS, this happens when you have java-1.8.0-openjdk installed but do not have java-1.8.0-openjdk-devel installed (but do have java-1.6.0-openjdk-devel installed). Installing java-1.8.0-openjdk-devel should fix it