Setting the JAVA_HOME environment variable

The procedure to set the JAVA_HOME environment variable differs on different platforms:

Open System Properties (right-click "My computer" and select "Properties")
Open "Advanced" tab
Click "Environment Variables"
Locate the "JAVA_HOME" system variable and click "Edit"
Set the value of the variable to the path of the Java installation, for example: "C:\Progra~1\Java\jre1.6.0_17"

Set JAVA_HOME variable for OSX

setenv JAVA_HOME /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Home

Depending on the used shell:

Set JAVA_HOME variable for 'tcsh'

setenv JAVA_HOME="/usr"

Set JAVA_HOME variable for 'bash' (directory is default for the Debian and Ubuntu apt-get package)

declare -x JAVA_HOME="/usr"

Java Home directory

The JAVA_HOME environment directory may be different on every distribution.