DAMTP Computing News

SUMMARY: 64-bit Sun Java is now installed for the 64-bit (x86_64) linux machines.

Previously when we installed new versions of the Sun Java (jre, jdk), for Linux (e.g. see news item 1243) we only bothered to install the 32-bit (ia32) versions.

Historically this is because we added Java to support things like Mozilla Firefox (and earlier) web browsers and the browser plug-in is only available in the 32-bit Java distribution - and hence we run 32-bit versions of Firefox even on 64-bit (x86_64) machines.

However for some purposes the 64-bit Sun Java is desirable on 64-bit (x86_64) machines so we have now installed that as well. Because of the history the paths to Java announced in news item 1243 will continue to refer to the 32-bit versions - for some time.

New paths starting with /opt/sunjava-native/ will use the most appropriate version of Sun Java for the native platform and the path /opt/sunjava-32bit/

ie the following table describes which types of binaries you can expect to find in the various places:

The plan is to correct all existing java paths which require the 32-bit version to use /opt/sunjava-32bit/ and then (perhaps) change what /opt/sunjava/ refers to but that may take some considerable time.

In the meantime you can use paths such as:

• /opt/sunjava-native/jre/bin/java
• /opt/sunjava-native/jdk/bin/appletviewer
• /opt/sunjava-native/jdk1.6.0_11/bin/javac

to refer to the native versions (ie 64-bit where appropriate).

Please send any complaints etc to jp107@damtp.cam.ac.uk and queries to help@damtp.cam.ac.uk