In this post I will go through the steps for setting up a very basic Java development environment on Mac OS, based on homebrew, cask and jenv.

1. Tools of trade

Homebrew - Command line package manager for Mac OS X.
Cask - Extends brew by adding support for multiple applications, including commercial ones.
jEnv - Manage multiple Java versions easily.

2. Basics

2.1. A Better Terminal

The Terminal application distributed with Mac OS X is great - customizable UI, supports multiple tabs, great OS integration (easy copy & paste), etc.

However it does have a major downside - by default, the support for colors in ls is disabled. You can enable it by adding the following lines in your .bash_profile:

export CLICOLOR=1
export LSCOLORS=gxBxhxDxfxhxhxhxhxcxcx

This configuration assumes you’re using a black background for your terminal. If you prefer to use a different color scheme, feel free to use a generator like this one.

2.2 Install Homebrew

ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"

2.3 Install Cask

Another one liner,

brew install caskroom/cask/brew-cask

2.4 Install jEnv

jEnv is a command line tool to help you forget how to set the JAVA_HOME environment variable. It can be installed through brew

brew install jenv

You will also need to update your .bash_profile with the following lines (you can read more details in the output of brew install jenv):

export JENV_ROOT=/usr/local/opt/jenv
eval "$(jenv init -)"

2.5 Pick Your Java Version

You can view the available Java versions by querying Cask:

brew cask search java7

You can view more details about a Java version using brew cask info:

brew cask info java

To install a Java version,

brew cask install java7

2.6 Use jEnv to switch between Java versions

First, you will need to tell jEnv which Java versions you would like to manage:

jenv add /System/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/1.6.0.jdk/Contents/Home/

You can view the managed Java versions using:

jenv versions

You can switch globally to anoter Java version using

jenv global 1.6

For more details, be sure to check the Official jEnv Documentation.