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Hints and Tips for Eclipse on Mac

I have used Eclipse for years on Mac, but recently it became problematic for me. After an OS update, I couldn't launch Eclipse anymore.

If you are getting any of these errors, this page is for you:

  • "Failed to create the Java Virtual Machine"
  • "You need a Java SE 6 runtime. Would you like to install one now?"
  • "JavaVM: Failed to load JVM: /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/XYZ/Contents/Home/bundle/Libraries/libserver.dylib"

This page has a some ideas on how to get around these and similar problems on the Mac. I am by no means an expert, so feel free to add/update the information if you have it.

Listing the JDKs on Mac

To list your currently installed system JDKs, do the following:

/usr/libexec/java_home -V

These are the JDKs installed at the system level, and does not include those downloaded independently like with BLT. It will list the chosen system JDK at the bottom of the list. How this JDK is chosen is described below.

The system JDK may not correlate with what you find when you do this in Bash:

echo $JAVA_HOME
java -version

That defines your Bash JDK. When you run java from the command line, that is the JDK being used.

Launching Eclipse

When you launch Eclipse by using the installed AppLauncher, it uses the system JDK. It seems to ignore the Bash JDK, and even the -vm option that you might manually add to the eclipse.ini. See this note in the official Eclipse docs:

The launcher uses the system JavaVM framework and will always load the vm in-process
using the JNI invocation API.

This means you have to be equipped to hack around on the system JDK if your Eclipse fails to launch. The next section explains some tricks for doing that.

System JDK Hacks

By default, the system JDK will pick up the latest JDK you have installed. As you troubleshoot, you will need a few ways to manipulate the system JDK. In my case, I used three different techniques before I was finally able to launch Eclipse.

Capabilities

This article talks about how you sometimes need to add declared capabilities to a JDK. It requires updating the contents of the Info.plist file in the JDK directory. I did that while trying to sort out my Eclipse launching problem, but I am not sure if it helped.

Disabling an installed JDK

You can also prevent an installed JDK from being picked up in the system JDK selection process. This is done by renaming the Info.plist file in the JDK Contents directory.

Fixing the missing libserver.dylib

This was the last problem I faced when launching Eclipse. I found the answer in this article. I had to softlink a file within the JDK.