README.md

June 26, 2026 ยท View on GitHub

jdk-switch

A zsh plugin for quickly switching between different jdk versions, and the jdk status won't be restored after reloading the shell.

Install

  1. Clone this repository in oh-my-zsh's plugins directory

    $ git clone https://github.com/LockonS/jdk-switch.git $ZSH/custom/plugins/jdk-switch

  2. Enable the plugin by adding jdk-switch in plugins in your ~/.zshrc

    If you have some extra settings about PATH variable, you may need to add jdk-switch-enable in ~/.zshrc to ensure JAVA_HOME was included in PATH.

    plugins=( [plugins...] jdk-switch)

  3. Usage

    # use jdk-switch to switch between different jdk versions
# switch to jdk 11
$ jdk-switch -v 11
# or (legacy support)
$ jdk-switch 11

# use 6,7,8 for jdk before jdk9
$ jdk-switch -v 8

# switch jdk only in current shell session (no file update, no shell reload)
$ jdk-switch --session-only -v 21

# check activating jdk status
$ jdk-status

# scan for brew installed jdk and create symbolic links (optional, just a convenient way for IDE to locate JDK)
$ jdk-switch scan

Notice

  1. This plugin works as a tiny tool to help you switch between different jdk versions by writing the jdk version you are currently using to a file and reloading the shell itself, so the setting would not be affected if you reload your shell and no additional useless part would show up in PATH. And that's also the original purpose of this plugin.

  2. Use --session-only flag to switch JDK only in the current shell session without updating the saved configuration or reloading the shell. This is useful for temporary version switching in scripts or one-off tasks. The change will be lost once the session ends or the shell is reloaded.

  3. This plugin manages the environment variable like PATH, JAVA_HOME, so be cautious while changing these variables in your ~/.zshrc or anywhere else, especially when adding settings about configuring the java environment which has something to do with any of these variables, as the plugin setting might be overridden by your own setting.