Installing Java

On this page:

1. Installing Java

JIRA requires a Java Development Kit (JDK) version 6 (1.6) or above to run. The JDK may be obtained from Sun's website (get the 'offline' edition if you're using Windows).

If you are running the Sun JRE version 6 (1.6), please ensure that you are running Update 10 or higher.

Linux note: Linux distributions frequently have an open-source implementation of Java called GCJ installed. Do not use this - it is incomplete and will cause JIRA to fail in obscure ways. You can test whether you have the correct Sun Java by running java -version :

~$ java -version
java version "1.6.0"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0-b105)
Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 1.6.0-b105, mixed mode, sharing)

On recent Linux distributions, Sun's Java can be installed with a command like sudo apt-get install sun-java6-jdk (for Ubuntu).

Linux note: On recent X.org-based distros (eg. FC4+) to avoid getting errors like:

java.lang.UnsatisfiedLinkError: /opt/j2sdk1.4.2_11/jre/lib/i386/libawt.so: libXp.so.6: cannot open
        shared object file: No such file or directory

you will need to install the xorg-x11-deprecated-libs package (Fedora) or equivalent (check Google ).

2. Setting JAVA_HOME

Once the JDK is installed, you will need to set the JAVA_HOME environment variable, pointing to the root directory of the JDK. Some JDK installers set this automatically (check by typing ' echo %JAVA_HOME% ' in a DOS prompt, or ' echo $JAVA_HOME ' in a shell). If it is unset, set it by hand in the Control Panel.

1. Right click on the My Computer icon on your desktop and select properties
2. Click the Advanced Tab
3. Click the Environment Variables button
4. Click New
5. Enter JAVA_HOME as the variable name and the directory where you installed Java.
   
6. Restart your computer.

3. Confirming that Java works

When the above steps have been done correctly, it should be possible to open a Windows command prompt and type %JAVA_HOME%\bin\java -version (or "%JAVA_HOME%"\bin\java -version if your %JAVA_HOME% value contains spaces) and see output similar to this:

java version "1.6.0_19"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_19-b04)
Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 16.2-b04, mixed mode, sharing)

If, later on when you try to start JIRA, you get the error Windows cannot find '-Xms128m', it is because you have not correctly set JAVA_HOME.

Next Step

Install JIRA Standalone