Installation on macOS Platforms

Installation on macOS Platforms #

GraalVM is available for macOS on x64 and AArch64 architectures. You can install GraalVM on macOS:

using SDKMAN!
from an archive
using script-friendly URLs

Note that on macOS the JDK installation path is: /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/<graalvm>/Contents/Home/.

Select the installation option that you prefer.

SDKMAN! #

Install Oracle GraalVM with SDKMAN!:

sdk install java <version>-graal

To install GraalVM Community Edition, change the distribution from graal to graalce in the command.

SDKMAN! helps you install and easily switch between JDKs. Check which GraalVM releases are available for installation by running:

sdk list java

From an Archive #

Install GraalVM from an archive (.tar.gz) for the current user into any location, without affecting other JDK installations.

Navigate to the GraalVM Downloads page. Select the Java version, macOS for the operating system, x64 or aarch64 for the architecture, and download.

Unzip the archive.

 tar -xzf graalvm-jdk-<version>_macos-<architecture>.tar.gz

Alternatively, open the file in Finder.

Move the downloaded package to its proper location, the /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/ directory. Since this is a system directory, sudo is required:
```
 sudo mv graalvm-jdk-<version> /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines
```
To verify if the move is successful and to get a list of all installed JDKs, run /usr/libexec/java_home -V.
There can be multiple JDKs installed on the machine. The next step is to configure the runtime environment:
- Set the JAVA_HOME environment variable to resolve to the GraalVM installation directory:
```
 export JAVA_HOME=/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/<graalvm>/Contents/Home
```
- Set the value of the PATH environment variable to the GraalVM bin/ directory:
```
 export PATH=/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/<graalvm>/Contents/Home/bin:$PATH
```

To confirm that the installation was successful, run the java -version command. Optionally, you can specify GraalVM as the default JRE or JDK installation in your Java IDE.

Script-Friendly URLs #

Script-friendly URLs enable you to download GraalVM from a command line, or automatically in your script and Dockerfile by using a download URL. Substitute <version> and <architecture> with the JDK version and aarch64 or x64 architecture.

# Download with wget
wget https://download.oracle.com/graalvm/<version>/latest/graalvm-jdk-<version>_macos-<architecture>_bin.tar.gz

# Download with curl
curl https://download.oracle.com/graalvm/<version>/latest/graalvm-jdk-<version>_macos-<architecture>_bin.tar.gz

# Download from archive
curl https://download.oracle.com/java/<version>/archive/jdk-<version>_macos-<architecture>_bin.tar.gz

For other installation options, visit the GraalVM Downloads page.

Prerequisites for Native Image on macOS #

Native Image requires the Xcode command line tools. To install them, run:

xcode-select --install

Installation Notes #

On JAVA_HOME Command #

The information property file, Info.plist, is located in the top-level Contents/ directory. This allows GraalVM to integrate with the macOS-specific /usr/libexec/java_home mechanism. Depending on other installed JDKs, running /usr/libexec/java_home -v<version> may return /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/<graalvm>/Contents/Home. To view all JVMs recognized by java_home, run /usr/libexec/java_home -V. This command lists JVMs in descending version order.