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.