Background:

My .zlogin had a call to /usr/libexec/java_home 1.7 to set the JAVA_HOME to that of my Java 1.7 install, but it was an artifact of my former Mac OS X Lion configuration.

I finally decided to “fix” the problem by installing JRE 7, but found my JAVA_HOME to be /Library/Internet Plug-Ins/JavaAppletPlugin.plugin/Contents/Home/bin/java, and then found out that I needed to install the SDK to “fix” java_home. I made the mistake of attempting to install the Java Platform, Enterprise Edition 7 SDK (with JDK 7u45) bundle for Mac, which is a shell script. I first pointed it to the JRE 7 home, but found that that didn’t have jar in the bin directory.

I found someone else with the same problem and someone else commenting not having to use a shell script to install on Mac. It got me thinking about splitting up the installs into JDK install and EE install.

Solution:

Try installing the Java Development Kit first and then running the unbundled EE SDK as follows:

• Java SE Development Kit 7 Downloads – Download and install Mac OS X x64 Java SE Development Kit
• Java Platform, Enterprise Edition 7 SDK – Download and run the Unix / Linux / Mac OS X version.