Java: com.sun.tools.javac.Main not found when trying to compile Hadoop program

Question

When I try to compile my program in Hadoop with this command

bin/hadoop com.sun.tools.javac.Main WordCounter.java
         


        

Answer 1

The error means you don't use a JDK to start Hadoop. The main difference between the JRE (pure runtime) and the JDK is the Java compiler javac. To see if you have a Java compiler, you need to check two places: There should be a javac in the $JAVA_HOME/bin folder plus there must be a file $JAVA_HOME/lib/tools.jar.

In your case, the first one (the binary to start the compiler) can be missing but you absolutely need the tools.jar.

You say that you have a tools.pack but I haven't heard about this one before. Use your package manager to search for openjdk and then look for a package in the result list which says jdk. On my system, that would be openjdk-7-jdk. Install this package and the error should go away.