Installing Java on Mavericks with homebrew-cask
Years ago, when I used to develop on a Windows machine, a senior colleague of mine told me - “Apple’s version of Java is slightly behind”. Ofcourse, I was oblivious to the control tech giants can force on it’s users. Anyways, whilst setting up my machine for some Android development, I had to install Java. I had JRE installed to run applets (who does that now?) in the browser, but for android development you need JDK.
While googling, I stumbled upon homebrew-cask and I was totally blown away. You can literally download the binaries and have them install by just running one command on the Terminal.
brew cask install virtualbox
Shut up and take my money!
I ran commands for VirtualBox and Genymotion and it worked like a charm. However, when it came to installing Java, it fell flat on it’s face. Homebrew-cask downloaded the java binary to this directory:
/opt/homebrew-cask/Caskroom/
but just left it there. I was still stuck on ‘no Java’ issue, so I just double-clicked the binary to install it. It installed properly and I was on my way to some andorid enlightenment, but the process revealed two things that need more investigation:
1. homebrew-cask has a bug somewhere as it failed to install Java binary.
2. Now, it’s easier to just run one command and install Java. I always find it really challenging to find the right binary on Apple’s site to install.
Hope it helps anyone needing Java, and unknown to homebrew-cask.