How do you address the issue of a missing tools.jar in a JDK in Mac OS X?

Question

From my searching, I found supporting information here: Java Development Guide for Mac OS X

tools.jar does not exist. Classes usually lo

Answer 1

I faced the same problem, and resolved it differently.

• First check that the java_home is set as /System/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/1.6.0.jdk/Contents and not /System/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/1.6.0.jdk/Contents/Home

• Add the cobertura plugin, make sure systemPath is correctly ref the location of classes.jar

      <plugin>
          <groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
          <artifactId>cobertura-maven-plugin</artifactId>
          <version>2.6</version>
          <dependencies>
              <dependency>
                  <groupId>com.sun</groupId>
                  <artifactId>tools</artifactId>
                  <version>1.6</version>
                  <scope>system</scope>
                  <systemPath>${java_home}/Classes/classes.jar</systemPath>
              </dependency>
          </dependencies>
      </plugin>
  

• Add the dependency and exclude tools

      <dependency>
      <groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
      <artifactId>cobertura-maven-plugin</artifactId>
      <version>2.6</version>
      <scope>test</scope>
      <exclusions>
          <exclusion>
              <groupId>com.sun</groupId>
              <artifactId>tools</artifactId>
          </exclusion>
      </exclusions>
  </dependency>
  

• Finally add the following profiles

  <profiles>
  <profile>
      <id>standard-jdk</id>
      <activation>
          <file>
              <exists>${java_home}/Home/lib/tools.jar</exists>
          </file>
      </activation>
      <properties>
          <tools-jar>${java_home}/Home/lib/tools.jar</tools-jar>
      </properties>
  </profile>
  <profile>
      <id>apple-jdk</id>
      <activation>
          <file>
              <exists>${java_home}/Classes/classes.jar</exists>
          </file>
      </activation>
      <properties>
          <tools-jar>${java_home}/Classes/classes.jar</tools-jar>
      </properties>
  </profile>
  

Now run maven and it should successfully generate the Cobertura reports!

Answer 2

This is similar to Bruno's answer above; however, I am not a big fan of symlinking the absolute path. Here is how I handle the symlinks:

cd /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/<jdk version>/Contents/Home
sudo ln -s lib Classes

cd lib/
sudo ln -s tools.jar classes.jar

That makes it easier then symlinking absolute paths.

Answer 3

Well, you search for 'tools.jar', with grep for instance. If the place where classes.jar is, where tools.jar was expected, you could just change the word.

Another idea is, to create a symbolic link from classes.jar to tools.jar, if you have enough privileges and the file system(s) on MacOS support this. Else: copy. Might be more easy, but not be forgotten for updates, maybe.

Answer 4

Here is my tested solution, which implies no change in maven config, just add symbolic links:

• ln -s /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/1.6.0_38-b04-436.jdk/Contents/Home/../Classes/classes.jar /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/1.6.0_38-b04-436.jdk/Contents/Home/../Classes/tools.jar
• ln -s /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/1.6.0_38-b04-436.jdk/Contents/Home/../Classes /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/1.6.0_38-b04-436.jdk/Contents/Home/../lib

Enjoy! Bruno

Answer 5

Can't find any references to it on the interweb, but my Mac 1.7 and 1.8 jdk's now have tools.jar.

/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.7.0_12.jdk/Contents/Home/lib/tools.jar /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.7.0_51.jdk/Contents/Home/lib/tools.jar /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.7.0_60.jdk/Contents/Home/lib/tools.jar /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.7.0_79.jdk/Contents/Home/lib/tools.jar /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_51.jdk/Contents/Home/lib/tools.jar /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_92.jdk/Contents/Home/lib/tools.jar /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/1.6.0.jdk/Contents/Classes/classes.jar

classes.jar is only present in mac 1.6 jdk.

--Erik

Answer 6

Instead of using Tomcat from Macports download Tomcat from Apache.

6.0: http://tomcat.apache.org/download-60.cgi

7.0: http://tomcat.apache.org/download-70.cgi