For the past couple of releases, Oracle has used a standard installer package to install Java 8. With the release of Java 8 Update 65 though, Oracle returned to using an application to install Java.
This switch away from using installer packages is a problem for Mac admins who need to deploy Oracle’s Java 8 in their own environment. However, after doing some research, it looks like it is still possible to deploy Oracle’s Java 8 Update 65 using a standard installer package. For more details, see below the jump.
While the Oracle install application is not a standard installer package, it appears that Oracle has stored an installer package for Java 8 within the install application at the following location:
/path/to/install.app/Contents/Resources/JavaAppletPlugin.pkg
Once the JavaAppletPlugin installer package is copied out of the install application, it can be deployed like previous Java updates’ installer packages.
Now that the good news is covered, let’s talk about the install application. Oracle’s Java 8 Update 65 install application has the following behavior:
This application will prompt for admin privileges before fully launching.
Once you provide admin authentication, the application launches.
It will then tell you how many devices run Java while it installs.
Once complete, it’ll tell you what it’s installed.
As best as I can tell, that’s it. Unlike previous incarnations of the install application, the Java 8 Update 65 install application does not appear to try to install any browser toolbars. To verify this behavior, I ran the MacJREInstaller binary which the Oracle Java application is using to actually install the Java browser plug-in.
While I observed that MacJREInstaller continued to check with Oracle and report which country it was being installed in, I did not see anything being downloaded from Oracle. All the functionality to do so is still contained within the MacJREInstaller binary though, so I plan to keep a close eye on this. For those interested, I’ve posted the output below.
