Defaulting To JDK 1.6 In NetBeans 6.5 On OSX
We try to stay current with our technologies at Point2. An example of this is using the most recent Java platform, Java 6 (JDK 1.6) and modern IDEs such as NetBeans 6.5. However, staying up to date with technology is not always as simple as it could be. Java 6 was released in December 2006 and NetBeans 6.5 was released almost 2 years later in November 2008 and yet it still wants to use Java 5 (JDK 1.5) as the default Java Platform, regardless of what you have set in the OSX Java preferences. Here is how you can set NetBeans 6.5 to use JDK 1.6 by default.
- Ensure that JDK 1.6 and NetBeans 6.5 are installed
- Locate the NetBeans config file, typically located at “/Applications/NetBeans/NetBeans 6.5.app/Contents/Resources/NetBeans/etc/netbeans.conf” and open the file in your favourite editor
- Set the “netbeans_jdkhome” parameter to the JDK 1.6 home directory (ie. netbeans_jdkhome=
/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.6/Home) - In NetBeans, right click on the project in the project window and select “Properties”
- Ensure the “Source/Binary Format” is set to “1.6″
- Click on “Tools” on the toolbar and select “Java Platforms”
- Under “J2SE” the default platform should now be “JDK 1.6″
Brett McClelland
Devon McGeary
Hemant Naidu
sarangh
tarruella
ryanshuya
p2girl
nyiksan
Todd Sturgeon
jtownley
traviscalder
steveosmith
Jesse Webb
Logan Peters
melaniemaryjane
mdchris
Mike Nash
dustinbartlett
brianrichardson
dgaudetp2
Zach Scott
Share on Facebook
Is there any way to default source/binary format to 6 for all projects?
Thanks, man. Good write up.
Thanks for this,
Being a OS X noob though, it took me a while to find out I needed to CRTL-Click on /Applications/Netbeans/Netbeans 6.5.app and choose “Show Package Contents” in order to get to the rest of the path Contents/Resources/Netbeans/etc/netbeans.conf
Also searching for netbeans.conf using Spotlight produced no results.
Very helpful, but one additional step was necessary for my needs:
* Open the “asenv.conf” file. In my case, it can be found at: /Applications/NetBeans/glassfish-v2ur2/config/asenv.conf
* Set the “AS_JAVA” parameter to the Java 1.6 directory. My entry reads:
AS_JAVA=”/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.6.0/Home”
Thanks Hugh for the great comment. A co-worker was trying to get glassfish to use 1.6, which also uses 1.5 by default, and what you said is exactly what is needed to get it working! Thanks again.
thanks for info
i had lost lots of time before visiting this link. it’s really worthful (:-)
My main interest was to debug an application running with JDK 1.6 from within NetBeans. But the Project–>Properties–>Java Sources Classpath : Java Platform never displayed JDK 1.6 as a choice even though I have 1.6 installed and even though OS X Java Preferences was set to default to JDK 1.6.
Obvious now, but I simply clicked Manage Java Platforms –> Add Platform and navigated to JDK 1.6.0/Home then added the src.jar and docs.jar and bingo – I am now able to debug my application spawned with Ant from JDK 1.6 from within NetBeans running with JDK 1.5.
Finally! Thanks god for you buddy.. was a breeze after going through your blog.. good stuff.
thanks! very handy
Thanks for the help! It really works…
Exelente Hermano Buen Tip, Jajaja GReat Help!!!
Muchas gracias!
is there any to check which version of JD I am using on mac?
In your system preferences there is a java control panel or you can just run “java -version” from the terminal.