JAVA_HOME 1. Legacy use of JAVA_HOME As of the latest versions of java-common there really should be no need for JAVA_HOME as Java(TM) should be completely integrated with your Debian GNU/Linux system. For reference, the setting of JAVA_HOME for Oracle Java is: JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/java-7-oracle 2. Selecting oracle-java7 as the default Java(TM) implementation Please see README.alternatives for instructions on how to make oracle-java7 executables and man pages the default on your system.