Understanding Oracle's Java on Mac

Oracle's JVM is only installed in one location. You've been misled!

As you've noted, the Java commands in /usr/bin are symlinks to binaries in /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/Current/Commands. The binaries within that directory are stub applications that determine which Java VM to use*, and then exec the corresponding real binary within that VM version. This is why all of the binaries within /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/Current/Commands are almost identical in size, despite the fact that you'd expect them to be implementing quite different functionality.

You can see this in action by using dtrace:

mrowe@angara:~$ sudo dtrace -n 'syscall::posix_spawn:entry { trace(copyinstr(arg1)); }' -c "/usr/bin/java -version"dtrace: description 'syscall::posix_spawn:entry ' matched 1 probedtrace: pid 44727 has exitedCPU     ID                    FUNCTION:NAME  8    619                posix_spawn:entry   /System/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/1.6.0.jdk/Contents/Home/bin/java

The given dtrace invocation prints out the path argument to posix_spawn when it is called by java -version. In my case the stub application has found Apple's Java 1.6 runtime in /System/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/1.6.0.jdk and is invoking that version of the java command.

The stub binaries also have another benefit: when they detect that no Java VM is installed they will prompt the user to install one.

As for the CurrentJDK symlink, as best as I can tell this for sake of backwards-compatibility with the past when Apple was the only source of the JVM on OS X.

* A combination of factors are considered when determining which Java VM should be used. JAVA_HOME is used if set (try JAVA_HOME=/tmp java). If JAVA_HOME is not set then the list of all virtual machines on the system is discovered. The JAVA_VERSION and JAVA_ARCH environment variables are used, if set, to filter the list of virtual machines to a particular version and supported architecture. The resulting list is then sorted by architecture (preferring 64-bit over 32-bit) and version (newer is better), and the best match is returned.

The Oracle Java 7 JRE (i.e. the one that is used by the web browser plugin to run applets and Java Web Start) installs itself in /Library/Internet Plug-Ins/JavaAppletPlugin.plugin/Contents/Home, and it is this one that any automatic updates will affect. The JDK (the one you download from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/index.html) installs by creating a directory under /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines, and it's up to you to update this yourself. You can have multiple JDK versions installed side by side but only one "public" JRE under JavaAppletPlugin.plugin (which will correspond to the latest installed JDK or a later version if it has been auto-updated since).

As explained by bdash, the commands under /usr/bin are stubs that delegate to whichever JDK/JRE is pointed to by the JAVA_HOME environment variable, or if that is not set then they will pick the most appropriate Java to run. You can use /usr/libexec/java_home to see which one the stubs would pick. If no Java is installed the stubs will offer to install the latest Apple Java 6 (as far as I know they will not offer to install Java 7).

I find this post:https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/qa/qa1170/_index.htmlThe /usr/libexec/java_home tool dynamically finds the top Java version specified in Java Preferences for the current user.