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On my machine, yesterday, I had installed and configured 6 java versions:

  • JRE 6
  • JRE 7
  • JRE 8
  • JDK 6
  • JDK 7
  • JDK 8

I believe an update was installed last night and today, both JRE 6 and 7 are missing (in 7, the lib folder is still there, as jars from it might have been locked by running applications). JDKs are perfectly fine, same is JRE 8.

After checking on a different machine (windows as well), the same thing happened: JRE 7 missing almost completely.

Did any else experience this? If yes, what is the cause? Is it an Oracle "feature" to remove older JREs?

I should mention that we have application which for various reasons need 6 or 7, and cannot be updated to 8 at this time.

Thanks.

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  • when you say you check on a windows machine , what are you meaning? you opened the java config and at installed versions , there were versions missing? Commented Sep 9, 2015 at 11:43
  • I checked the installation folder. It still has the 6 folders, but they are either empty or just contain the lib folder. Commented Sep 9, 2015 at 11:45
  • Oracle has been known to delete older JREs during updates recently - which, IMO, is perfectly fine. It was hell-like to install an update and have JRE 1.6.0_10, 1.6.0_11, 1.6.0_12 (ad infinitum) on your machine. If you need to support older versions, you can always configure your IDE to compile for Java 6 and/or test against the SDK. Commented Sep 9, 2015 at 11:45
  • JAVA_HOME points to various java installation, as needed per application Commented Sep 9, 2015 at 11:45
  • @Marcelo, do you have any articles on the subject, please? Commented Sep 9, 2015 at 11:46

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Yes, it's a feature. In the Java 6 times it was not, and it ended up in a library hell with dozens of versions of the JRE installed at the same time - something that, in theory, should not be needed as those versions are supposed to be compatible with each other.

As the documentation says:

The Java auto-update mechanism is designed to keep Java users up-to-date with the latest security fixes. To achieve this goal Windows and OS X users that rely on Java’s auto-update mechanism will have their JRE 7 replaced with JRE 8.

...

As we did when JRE 6 was replaced by JRE 7, we have auto-updated users of the older release to the newer version of Java.

If you need to support older environments, you can set your compiler's compliance level. You will not be able to use newer features of the language, but it should run just fine.

You can also keep multiple JDKs installed and use that to test - the JRE comes bundled with it, so you just have to browse to that folder on the command prompt and compile with javac and/or start your app with java.

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This is a terrible solution to updating a JRE! If you have a Windows service that runs Tomcat (for example). The JRE that is running on the server is automatically deleted and will not function correctly. Never delete the 'bin' directory of an active running java.exe process, prompt the user to correct the JRE without blowing up the application. Geez!!!

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