javac not recognized

Question

What can I do when I keep receiving the error

\'javac\' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file

Answer 1

Common Error Messages from SUN Tutorial page

Answer 2

Even if I had

• JDK installed
• JAVA_HOME defined
• %JAVA_HOME%\bin present in my %PATH%

I still had this error. I resolved it by eliminating the JRE from my path variable. It was put before JAVA_HOME, has no javac. It seems Windows can't find javac in JAVA_HOME\bin in this case.

Answer 3

The link below gives a step by step explanation on how to set up java_home and path variables. JAVA_HOME setup

Answer 4

Make sure %JAVA_HOME%/bin is on your %PATH% (or $JAVA_HOME on the $PATH in *nix).

Answer 5

It means that it is not in your path. You have the following options:

1) Change to the directory where javac lives before calling it.

2) Use the full path to javac when making the call, e.g. C:\java\jdk1.6.0_12\bin\javac ...

3) Add the javac directory to the PATH environment variable

Answer 6

Step 4 (Update the PATH variable) of the JDK installation instructions explains what you should do to make it so that you can just type javac in the command prompt window.