Java Version Mismatch for Gradle Build

In this tutorial, we are going to learn how to resolve the Java version mismatch issue for a Gradle build in a Spring Framework, Spring Boot project.

Problem

When building a Spring Boot application with Gradle, we might encounter the following issue.

bash

Dependency requires at least JVM runtime version 17. This build uses a Java 8 JVM

This is the Java version mismatch when running the following command in a Spring Boot application.

bash

 ./gradlew build

Why does this happen?

This is due to a disconnect or mismatch between the executable Java version and the JAVA_HOME environment variable.

While running java -version it might show that Java 17 is installed, the Gradle Wrapper (gradlew) specifically depends on the JAVA_HOME environment variable to locate the JDK. If JAVA_HOME is still pointing to an older Java 8 installation, the issue occurs with the build failing.

How to Fix It

Verify the Java version

First, let's verify the installed Java version

bash

java --version

You can verify the active Java version installed as:

bash

readlink -f $(which java)

Output:

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/usr/lib/jvm/java-17-openjdk-amd64/bin/java

Note that the directory path will be /usr/lib/jvm/java-17-openjdk-amd64 (excluding the /bin/java ).

Make sure the Java version used to create a project matches the installed version.

If you haven't found the specific version, download the JDK-specific version from the Java archive

Update the bashrc file

Lets setup the JAVA_HOME path. Here, we are using Ubuntu, so let's do it on it.

Open the bashrc file

bash

sudo vi ~/.bashrc

Add the following setup

bash

export JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/java-17-openjdk-amd64
export PATH=$PATH:$JAVA_HOME/bin

Make sure to use the exact path of JDK; in our case, it is inside /usr/lib/jvm/java-17-openjdk-amd64

If you are using the old JAVA_HOME setup, update it with the new version of Java so the mismatch issue will be resolved.

Apply the changes

Save the file, press Esc

bash

:wq!

Reload the changes

Now reload the changes

bash

source ~/.bashrc

Verify the changes

bash

echo $JAVA_HOME

Now the setup is completed. You can check by running the Gradle Spring Boot project.

bash

./gradlew clean build

Your Gradle wrapper will now use the setup JDK 17, resulting in a version mismatch issue.