Force Linux (RedHat) to use latest installed version of Java

Hi

This is according to my experience in RHEL 5

I needed latest java for running eclipse on my Linux box.

I installed Java latest version from java.com, by downloading the rpm and running

#rpm -i jre-7u5-linux-i586.rpm   --> this file was the latest version downloaded.
#java -version

this was not returning the latest version

After a lot of finding, I then did the following, and it worked.

# cd /etc/alternatives
#unlink java
# ln -s /usr/java/jre1.7.0_05/bin/java
#java -version

now it gave me the latest version "jre1.7.0_05"