start-jira.sh cannot find JAVA_HOME even though it is set

[Jared Tyler]

When I run bin/start-jira.sh, it displays, "Neither the JAVA_HOME nor the JRE_HOME environment variable is defined." Both of these env variables are set. Despite this, I looked into the file bin/setclasspath.sh, where that error message originates. At line 32, it executes which java 2>/dev/null in order to try to find the java home directory on its own. From within the script (which I have confirmed by echoing that command's return value), that returns a blank. However, when I run that command from outside the shell script, it accurately gives me the location of the java executable.

I have also echoed the value of $JAVA_HOME and $JRE_HOME, both of which have their appropriate values, but from within the script they appear to be empty. I can't figure out why this is happening. Any ideas?

[Tam Nguyen · Accepted solution]

Make sure you define JAVA_HOME in ~/.bashrc . Anyway there is a workaround, create and execute a script like bellow

#!/bin/bash

export JAVA_HOME=<JAVA HOME>
<JIRA-INSTALL>/bin/start-jira.sh

[Jared Tyler]

Thanks for the reply, Tam. JAVA_HOME is already defined appropriately in /etc/bashrc and it has the proper value immediately upon login.

Your workaround worked wonders though! I have no idea why that worked, but thank you. :)

[Tam Nguyen]

You are welcome!.

The problem here is the difference between /etc/profile and /etc/bashrc, they are similar but /etc/profile is used for login shells and /etc/bashrc is used for non-login shells. I guess you execute start-jira.sh by login user (maybe root) so it loads /etc/profile not /etc/bashrc. Define JAVA_HOME in /etc/profile then try to run start-jira.sh again, let me know if this works for you.

Cheers,

[Jared Tyler]

Hey Tam, sorry I forgot to come back and let you know how it went. I defined JAVA_HOME in /etc/profile as well as /etc/bashrc (no point in removing that one, I feel) and stopped using the wrapper script workaround, and everything worked fine.

I didn't realize that about the difference between /etc/bashrc and /etc/profile, but now I know! Thanks a ton, this is definitely going to be an influential contribution of yours to my knowledge of Linux.

[Deleted user]

For anyone else that stumbles upon this because they renamed the install folder after an upgrade or a server migration. Getting old referencees to JRE_HOME? It's in <install>/bin/permgen.sh

[Daniel Eads {unmonitored account}]

Spot on. Thanks!