Alternative shades $PATH?

Question

I've install jdk now with this reference. According to that I have to add jdk directory to PATH variable and add an alternative via update-alternatives. I've done that and everything is fine. But there is one thing that is not clear for me: when I type which java bash returns only /usr/bin/java but tells nothing about usr/bin/jvm/java-6-oracle/bin despite this folder is in the PATH variable and as I see, bash should have find java also there and mention it in the output. Can anybody explain why there's such a "shade"?

Thank you.

Answer 1

/usr/bin/java is actually a symlink to /etc/alternatives/java, which is itself a symlink to the actual java binary. The update-alternatives script changes where /etc/alternatives/java is linked to. By running update-alternatives, /usr/bin/java will end up symlinked to /usr/bin/jvm/java-6-oracle/bin/java.

The reason which java returns /usr/bin/java is that /usr/bin is on your PATH before /usr/bin/jvm/java-6-oracle/bin. If you run which -a java, it should show you both /usr/bin/java and /usr/bin/jvm/java-6-oracle/bin/java.