[java] "Unable to locate tools.jar" when running ant

When running ant, I get the following message:

Unable to locate tools.jar. Expected to find it in C:\Program Files\Java\jre6\lib\tools.jar

I have JAVA_HOME set to C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.7.0_02, PATH includes C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jdk1.7.0_02\bin, CLASSPATH includes C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jdk1.7.0_02, and ANT_HOME is set to C:\ant.

It seems that ant is ignoring all of these settings and looking for the tools.jar somewhere else. There are no environment variables which point to the jre6 path. Any ideas why?

I was also having the same problem So I just removed the JDK path from the end and put it in start even before all System or Windows 32 paths.

Before it was like this:

C:\Windows\system32;C:\Windows;C:\Windows\System32\Wbem;C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\;C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Tools\Binn\;C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\100\DTS\Binn\;C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Tools\Binn\VSShell\Common7\IDE\;C:\Users\Rajkaran\AppData\Local\Smartbar\Application\;C:\Users\Rajkaran\AppData\Local\Smartbar\Application\;C:\Program Files\doxygen\bin;%JAVA_HOME%\bin;%ANT_HOME%\bin

So I made it like this:

%JAVA_HOME%\bin;C:\Windows\system32;C:\Windows;C:\Windows\System32\Wbem;C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\;C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Tools\Binn\;C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\100\DTS\Binn\;C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Tools\Binn\VSShell\Common7\IDE\;C:\Users\Rajkaran\AppData\Local\Smartbar\Application\;C:\Users\Rajkaran\AppData\Local\Smartbar\Application\;C:\Program Files\doxygen\bin;%ANT_HOME%\bin

1. Try to check it once more according to this tutorial: http://vietpad.sourceforge.net/javaonwindows.html

2. Try to reboot your system.

3. If nothing, try to run "cmd" and type there "java", does it print anything?

There are two directories that looks like JDK.

  C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.7.0_02
  C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jdk1.7.0_02\

This may be due to both 64 bit and 32 bit JDK installed? What ever may be the case, the java.exe seen by ant.bat should from the JDK. If the JRE's java.exe comes first in the path, that will be used to guess the JDK location.

Put 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jdk1.7.0_02\bin' or 'C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.7.0_02' as the first argument in the path.

Further steps:

You can take output of ant -diagnostics and look for interesting keys. (assuming Sun/Oracle JDK).

 java.class.path 
 java.library.path
 sun.boot.library.path

(in my case tools.jar appears in java.class.path)

The order of items in the PATH matters. If there are multiple entries for various java installations, the first one in your PATH will be used.

I have had similar issues after installing a product, like Oracle, that puts it's JRE at the beginning of the PATH.

Ensure that the JDK you want to be loaded is the first entry in your PATH (or at least that it appears before C:\Program Files\Java\jre6\bin appears).

Make sure you use the root folder of the JDK. Don't add "\lib" to the end of the path, where tools.jar is physically located. It took me an hour to figure that one out. Also, this post will help show you where Ant is looking for tools.jar:

Why does ANT tell me that JAVA_HOME is wrong when it is not?