Setting JAVA_HOME and PATH Variables

Windows

To set up JAVA_HOME and PATH variables on Windows:

Setting the JAVA_HOME Variable

  1. Search for Advanced System Settings (open Search, type “advanced system settings” and hit Enter).
  2. Find the Advanced tab and click Environment Variables.
  3. Click New in the System variables section (if you want to set JAVA_HOME system wide) or in the User variables section (if you want to set JAVA_HOME for a single user). This will open a modal window for Variable name.
  4. In the Variable name window type JAVA_HOME, and for the Variable value set the path to the JDK installation.
  5. Click OK in the Variable name window.
  6. Click OK in the tab and click Apply to apply the changes.

Setting the PATH Variable

The PATH variable is automatically set by the Windows installer .

Mac OS

First, determine whether you are running Bash or zsh. Open a Terminal and run:

echo $SHELL

This should return either /bin/bash, in which case you are running Bash, or /bin/zsh, in which case you are running zsh.

If you get any other output, you have a non-standard setup. If you’re not sure how to set up environment variables in your setup, ask on the Daml forum and we will be happy to help.

Open a terminal and run the following commands. Copy/paste one line at a time if possible. None of these should produce any output on success.

To set the variables in bash:

echo 'export JAVA_HOME="$(/usr/libexec/java_home)"' >> ~/.bash_profile
echo 'export PATH="$HOME/.daml/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bash_profile

To set the variables in zsh:

echo 'export JAVA_HOME="$(/usr/libexec/java_home)"' >> ~/.zprofile
echo 'export PATH="$HOME/.daml/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.zprofile

For both shells, the above will update the configuration for future, newly opened terminals, but will not affect any exsting one.

To test the configuration of JAVA_HOME (on either shell), open a new terminal and run:

echo $JAVA_HOME

You should see the path to the JDK installation, which is something like /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk_version_number/Contents/Home.

Next, please verify the PATH variable by running (again, on either shell):

daml version

You should see the header SDK versions: followed by a list of installed (or available) SDK versions (possibly a list of just one if you just installed).

If you do not see the expected outputs, contact us on the Daml forum and we will be happy to help.

Linux

To set up JAVA_HOME and PATH variables on Linux for bash:

Setting the JAVA_HOME Variable

Java is typically installed in a folder like /usr/lib/jvm/java-version. Before running the following command make sure to change the java-version with the actual folder found on your computer:

echo "export JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/java-version" >> ~/.bash_profile

Setting the PATH Variable

The installer will ask to set the PATH variable for you. If you want to set the PATH variable manually instead, run the following command:

echo 'export PATH="$HOME/.daml/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bash_profile

Verifying the Changes

In order for the changes to take effect you will need to restart your computer. After the restart, verify that everything was set up correctly using the following steps:

Verify the JAVA_HOME variable by running:

echo $JAVA_HOME

You should see the path you gave for the JDK installation, which is something like /usr/lib/jvm/java-version.

Then verify the PATH variable by running:

echo $PATH

You should see a series of paths which includes the path to the SDK, which is something like /home/your_username/.daml/bin.