Home/ Questions/Q 169657
In Process

The Archive Base Latest Questions

Editorial Team
  • 0
Asked: 2026-05-11T12:40:12+00:00

Is it possible to specify the JVM to use when you call java jar

  • 0

Is it possible to specify the JVM to use when you call ‘java jar jar_name.jar’ . I have two JVM installed on my machine. I can not change JAVA_HOME as it may break code that is all ready running.

Kind Regards

Stephen

Share

Leave an answer

You must login to add an answer.

Need An Account,

1 Answer

  1. Yes – just explicitly provide the path to java.exe. For instance:

    c:\Users\Jon\Test>'c:\Program Files\java\jdk1.6.0_03\bin\java.exe' -version java version '1.6.0_03' Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_03-b05) Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 1.6.0_03-b05, mixed mode, sharing)  c:\Users\Jon\Test>'c:\Program Files\java\jdk1.6.0_12\bin\java.exe' -version java version '1.6.0_12' Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_12-b04) Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 11.2-b01, mixed mode, sharing)

    The easiest way to do this for a running command shell is something like:

    set PATH=c:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.6.0_03\bin;%PATH%

    For example, here’s a complete session showing my default JVM, then the change to the path, then the new one:

    c:\Users\Jon\Test>java -version java version '1.6.0_12' Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_12-b04) Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 11.2-b01, mixed mode, sharing)  c:\Users\Jon\Test>set PATH=c:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.6.0_03\bin;%PATH%  c:\Users\Jon\Test>java -version java version '1.6.0_03' Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_03-b05) Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 1.6.0_03-b05, mixed mode, sharing)

    This won’t change programs which explicitly use JAVA_HOME though.

    Note that if you get the wrong directory in the path – including one that doesn’t exist – you won’t get any errors, it will effectively just be ignored.

    • 0