Windows JAVA HOME problems

windows variables environment java-home
Amir Afghani picture Amir Afghani · Aug 4, 2009 · Viewed 11.9k times · Source

I'm trying to experiment with OracleHelp for Java on my Windows Vista server. I downloaded Oracle help, and I'm following their installation instructions which states:

  • Unzip the OHJ installation .zip file into a directory of your choice
  • Ensure that you have the JAVA_HOME environment variable set to the location of your compatible Java SE installation

  • In the OHJ installation directory, there is a bin subdirectory containing Windows .cmd files and Unix/Linux shell scripts. On Windows platforms, double click on the .cmd files to launch them (or type the .cmd file name on the command line). On Unix platforms, type "sh scriptName.sh" to execute the shell scripts.

    • ohguide.cmd (ohguide.sh) - launches the Oracle Help Guide documentation
    • choiceDemo.cmd (choiceDemo.sh) - launches a demo of Oracle Help features
    • cshDemo.cmd (cshDemo.sh) - launches a demo of context sensitive help
    • helpsetDemo.cmd (helpsetDemo.sh) - launches the Helpset Previewer for testing your helpsets
    • authoringWizard.cmd (authoringWizard.bat) - launches the Helpset Authoring Wizard

When I set JAVA_HOME on windows I can set it with or without quotes. Either way fails :

with quotes:

C:\Users\Amir\Desktop\ohj-5_0_0_433\ohj-5_0_0_433\bin>set JAVA_HOME="C:\Program
Files (x86)\Java\jdk1.6.0_14"
C:\Users\Amir\Desktop\ohj-5_0_0_433\ohj-5_0_0_433\bin>ohguide.cmd
C:\Users\Amir\Desktop\ohj-5_0_0_433\ohj-5_0_0_433>""C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\
jdk1.6.0_14"\bin\java.exe" -classpath "ohj.jar;help-share.jar;oracle_ice.jar;jew
t.jar;share.jar;help-demo.jar" oracle.help.demo.ChoiceDemo "demodoc\ohguide\ohgu
ide.hs"
'""C:\Program' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

without quotes:

C:\Users\Amir\Desktop\ohj-5_0_0_433\ohj-5_0_0_433\bin>set JAVA_HOME=C:\Prog iles (x86)\Java\jdk1.6.0_14

C:\Users\Amir\Desktop\ohj-5_0_0_433\ohj-5_0_0_433\bin>ohguide.cmd 'Files' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file. No Java Virtual Machine found; please set JAVA_HOME environment variable.

Answer

JZeeb picture JZeeb · Sep 17, 2009

The problem is caused by the blanks embedded in your JAVA_HOME. When I install the JDK on Windows, I override the installation location with a directory path that does not contain any blanks. There are still a surprising number of tools that cannot deal with blank spaces.

In your particular case, the problem caused by an inconsistency between _init.cmd and ohguide.cmd. In one place, they have double quotes around a use of OHJ_JAVA_HOME and in the other case, they do not have double quotes.

But there is a solution - use the shortened name for the directory. You can find the name using the DIR /X command in a DOS window. For example, on my system "C:\Program Files" has the short name "C:\Proga~1". You can use this value when setting JAVA_HOME, without any quotes. e.g.

set JAVA_HOME=c:\progra~1\java\jdk1.6.0_14

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