On Thu, Jan 29, 2015 at 9:14 PM, Taylor Braun-Jones
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> On Thu, Jan 29, 2015 at 8:53 PM, Nico Kadel-Garcia <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>
>> On Thu, Jan 29, 2015 at 7:30 PM, hansel <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>> > Hi,
>> >
>> > If I download the Oracle rpm for 1.8, do the necessary links in
>> > /etc/alternatives, remove Open JDK 1.7 and make sure the enviroment
>> > variables are correct, do I avoid crashes (or silent errors) -- to the
>> > best
>> > of more experienced SL users' knowledge, of course?
>> >
>> > Some of what I do depends on Java version 1.8 andI need to do something.
>> > (On
>> > other distos, I would just do it (and did with Ubuntu), but SL7 docs
>> > carry
>> > strong warnings about introducting conflicts.)
>> >
>> > Thank you.
>> >
>> > Mark Hansel
>> > Emeritus Professor of Sociology and Criminal Justice
>> > Minnesota State University Moorhead
>> > [log in to unmask]
>> > [log in to unmask]
>>
>> Why would you want to? openjdk-1.8.0 is available directly as part of
>> RHEL and Scientific Linux, with source code,  Installing either
>> jdk-1.8.0 or opndk-1.8.0 can be done along with openjdk-1.7.0,
>
>
>
> These are not exactly the same as Oracle Java and, unfortunately, some Java
> applications only work with Oracle Java.

Name 2. Seriously: I've heard this again and again since Java.... 1.4?
I've not actually encountered any instance except where someone
hardoced something, deliberately, to *insist* on it. And ever since
Java 1.5.0, as soon as I or a colleague broke that lock, the
alternative OpenJDK worked just fine.

Part of the point of Java was to be "write once, run anywhere". While
this has proven to be demonstrably untrue, similar versions of Java on
the same OS have behaved pretty well for compatibility simply because
they follow the specs.

> Mark, I have been using Oracle Java 1.8 for a while now without any issues.
> After installing the Oracle Java rpm on my system, this is the script I
> wrote to set it up in /etc/alternatives and make it the default:
>
> https://gist.github.com/nocnokneo/fae7b70af4a7b2623b8c
>
> Taylor

And that's fine. But if you insist on going this route, I'll urge you
to take a look at the chef installer and the java cookbook, which
scans and resets the links as needed every time it runs, with the
designated Java, and actually package manages the Oracle Java.