Tips Install Java on Ubuntu using Apt-Get command

1)Installing default JRE/JDK

This is the recommended and easiest option. This will install OpenJDK 6 on Ubuntu 12.04 and earlier and on 12.10+ it will install OpenJDK 7.

Installing Java with apt-get is easy. First, update the package index:

sudo apt-get update

Then, check if Java is not already installed:

java -version

If it returns "The program java can be found in the following packages", Java hasn't been installed yet, so execute the following command:

sudo apt-get install default-jre

This will install the Java Runtime Environment (JRE). If you instead need the Java Development Kit (JDK), which is usually needed to compile Java applications (for example Apache Ant, Apache Maven, Eclipse and IntelliJ IDEA execute the following command:

sudo apt-get install default-jdk

That is everything that is needed to install Java.

2)Setting the "JAVA_HOME" environment variable

To set the JAVA_HOME environment variable, which is needed for some programs, first find out the path of your Java installation:

sudo update-alternatives --config java

usually the path should be in /usr/lib/jvm/

Copy the path from your preferred installation and then edit the file /etc/environment:

sudo nano /etc/environment

In this file, add the following line (replacing YOUR_PATH by the just copied path):

JAVA_HOME="YOUR_PATH"

That should be enough to set the environment variable. Now reload this file:

source /etc/environment

Test it by executing:

echo $JAVA_HOME