[java] Intellij JAVA_HOME variable

I started using Gradle and Intellij but I am having problems to configure Gradle's JVM. When I start a new Gradle project I am not allowed to define JVM as my JAVA_HOME variable. The following screenshots show what is happening:

As you can see Intellij says that my JAVA_HOME variable is not defined, however if I type echo $JAVA_HOME I can get my Java directory, in my case: /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_45.jdk/Contents/Home

My ./~bash_profile is configured as follow: export JAVA_HOME=$(/usr/libexec/java_home)

Someone can figure what is happening ? Thank you!

In my case I needed a lower JRE, so I had to tell IntelliJ to use a different one in "Platform Settings"

• Platform Settings > SDKs ( ⌘+; )
• Click the + button to add a new SDK (or rename and load an existing one)
• Choose the /Contents/Home directory from the appropriate SDK
  (i.e. /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_45.jdk/Contents/Home)

Bit counter-intuitive, but you must first setup a SDK for Java projects. On the bottom right of the IntelliJ welcome screen, select 'Configure > Project Defaults > Project Structure'.

The Project tab on the left will show that you have no SDK selected:

Therefore, you must click the 'New...' button on the right hand side of the dropdown and point it to your JDK. After that, you can go back to the import screen and it should be populated with your JAVA_HOME variable, providing you have this set.

If you'd like to have your JAVA_HOME recognised by intellij, you can do one of these:

• Start your intellij from terminal /Applications/IntelliJ IDEA 14.app/Contents/MacOS (this will pick your bash env variables)
• Add login env variable by executing: launchctl setenv JAVA_HOME "/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_60.jdk/Contents/Home"

To directly answer your question, you can add launchctl line in your ~/.bash_profile

As others have answered you can ignore JAVA_HOME by setting up SDK in project structure.

So far, nobody has answered the actual question.

Someone can figure what is happening ?

The problem here is that while the value of your $JAVA_HOME is correct, you defined it in the wrong place.

• When you open a terminal and launch a Bash session, it will read the ~/.bash_profile file. Thus, when you enter echo $JAVA_HOME, it will return the value that has been set there.
• When you launch IntelliJ directly, it will not read ~/.bash_profile … why should it? So to IntelliJ, this variable is not set.

There are two possible solutions to this:

• Launch IntelliJ from a Bash session: open a terminal and run "/Applications/IntelliJ IDEA.app/Contents/MacOS/idea". The idea process will inherit any environment variables of Bash that have been exported. (Since you did export JAVA_HOME=…, it works!), or, the sophisticated way:

• Set global environment variables that apply to all programs, not only Bash sessions. This is more complicated than you might think, and is explained here and here, for example. What you should do is run

  /bin/launchctl setenv JAVA_HOME $(/usr/libexec/java_home)
  

  However, this gets reset after a reboot. To make sure this gets run on every boot, execute

  cat << EOF > ~/Library/LaunchAgents/setenv.JAVA_HOME.plist
  <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
  <!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN"
      "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
    <plist version="1.0">
    <dict>
      <key>Label</key>
      <string>setenv.JAVA_HOME</string>
      <key>ProgramArguments</key>
      <array>
        <string>/bin/launchctl</string>
        <string>setenv</string>
        <string>JAVA_HOME</string>
        <string>$(/usr/libexec/java_home)</string>
      </array>
      <key>RunAtLoad</key>
      <true/>
      <key>ServiceIPC</key>
      <false/>
    </dict>
  </plist>
  EOF
  

  Note that this also affects the Terminal process, so there is no need to put anything in your ~/.bash_profile.

Right Click On Project -> Open Module Settings -> Click SDK's

Choose Java Home Directory