How to install GraalVM on Linux with alternatives

how-to-install-graalvm-linux.md

How to Install GraalVM Community Edition on Linux

Note: Tested on Fedora only

1. Download the new release of GraalVM and unpack it anywhere in your filesystem:

$ tar -xvzf graalvm-ce-1.0.0-rc14-linux-amd64.tar.gz

2. Move the unpacked dir to /usr/lib/jvm/ and create a symbolic link to make your life easier when updating the GraalVM version:

# mv graalvm-ce-1.0.0-rc14/ /usr/lib/jvm/
# cd /usr/lib/jvm
# ln -s graalvm-ce-1.0.0-rc14 graalvm

3. Add a new alternatives configuration. First grab the priorization number by listing the already installed JVMs and then use this number to configure the new one:

# alternatives --config java

There are 3 programs which provide 'java'.

  Selection    Command
-----------------------------------------------
   1           java-11-openjdk.x86_64 (/usr/lib/jvm/java-11-openjdk-11.0.2.7-0.fc29.x86_64/bin/java)
*+ 2           java-1.8.0-openjdk.x86_64 (/usr/lib/jvm/java-1.8.0-openjdk-1.8.0.201.b09-2.fc29.x86_64/jre/bin/java)
   3           java-openjdk.x86_64 (/usr/lib/jvm/java-12-openjdk-12.0.0.33-1.ea.1.rolling.fc29.x86_64/bin/java)

In this case I have 3 java alternatives installed, so I'm going to install the fourth.

# alternatives --install /usr/bin/java java /usr/lib/jvm/graalvm/bin/java 4

Testing

To make sure everything is working fine, set the new JVM on your environment:

[ricferna@skywalker Downloads]$ sudo alternatives --config java

There are 4 programs which provide 'java'.

  Selection    Command
-----------------------------------------------
   1           java-11-openjdk.x86_64 (/usr/lib/jvm/java-11-openjdk-11.0.2.7-0.fc29.x86_64/bin/java)
*+ 2           java-1.8.0-openjdk.x86_64 (/usr/lib/jvm/java-1.8.0-openjdk-1.8.0.201.b09-2.fc29.x86_64/jre/bin/java)
   3           java-openjdk.x86_64 (/usr/lib/jvm/java-12-openjdk-12.0.0.33-1.ea.1.rolling.fc29.x86_64/bin/java)
   4           /usr/lib/jvm/graalvm/bin/java

Enter to keep the current selection[+], or type selection number: 4

To verify, just check the version number:

[ricferna@skywalker Downloads]$ java -version
openjdk version "1.8.0_202"
OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_202-20190206132807.buildslave.jdk8u-src-tar--b08)
OpenJDK GraalVM CE 1.0.0-rc14 (build 25.202-b08-jvmci-0.56, mixed mode)

And you're set.

Note

The native-image executable is not bundled in the GraalVM distribution anymore. Install it manually using $GRAALVM_HOME/bin/gu install native-image.

Not a big deal, but the command on Debian appears to be update-alternatives rather than alternatives

Beyond that, this worked like a charm to install GraalVM 20 for Java11. Thank you! I suppose making one's way around installing multiple versions of Java and getting them correctly integrated with alternatives is old hat to many, but it is new to me and this was a tremendous help.

Thank you for contributing back adding a note about the command on Debian. Indeed using alternatives is the way to handle multiple Java installations on Linux system, but configuring it properly might be tricky. Thanks!!

Thanks you @ricardozanini

Thanks.

worked like a charm under Ubuntu 18.04 (with update-alternatives). for some reason, the 4 means priority under Ubuntu, not the order, but other than that, all good. thanks for sharing this.

Since alternatives is not available on arch, do you have any other solutions?