Need help installing OpenJDK 11 on MacOS? Click here to learn how in this simple, easy-to-follow tutorial with sample code!

Download and install the latest Java Virtual Machine in Internet Explorer. Go to www.java.com. Click Free Java Download. Click Agree and Start Free Download. Notes: If prompted by the User Account Control window, click Yes. If prompted by the Security Warning window, click Run. Troubleshooting with Mac OS Sierra; Download GAMA. GAMA 1.8.1 (the last release) comes in 6 different versions: 2 versions for each of the 3 environments (by default in 64 bits) Windows, MacOS X and Linux (tested mainly on Ubuntu), For each OS, one version includes the Java JDK (1.8.0161 in 64 bits) and one does not.

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If you download the .tar.gz for OpenJDK 11 directly from http://jdk.java.net/11/, there’s no obvious installation instructions (at least that I could find) on the OpenJDK website or in the .gz file. If you’ve done any fiddling with different JDK versions on MacOS before, you’ve probably come across the ‘/usr/libexec/java_home’ utility, which composes a number of useful things relating to the JDK that you’re currently using in your PATH. Click here for my previous article about this utility and answers to this StackOverflow post, which includes one of the most extensive and useful guides to running different JDK versions on MacOS that I’ve seen.

/usr/libexec/java_home: This will show you where the current JDK home is, for example:

/usr/libexec/java_home -V: This lists all installed JDKs, which is shown below:

To switch between JDKs, use /usr/libexec/java_home -v version (e.g. 10):

Knowing that your available JDKs are installed to /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/ by default, moving the contents of the downloaded OpenJDK 11 dir from inside the .gz file to the same location would make sense.

Once you’ve moved it there, java_home -V now shows the new JDK in place: