Eclipse: Default JRE for newly created/imported projects

Question

I am using Java 8 and overtime I either create or import a project the JRE System Library is set to 1.5 I wonder why since I have nothing but Java 8 installed.

I now that I can set a default JRE over

Java->Installed JREs

This would however set a hard coded path to a specific JDK version. I do update my JDK here and then and if I install newer versions I would have to think of upgrading this path too. The command (I am on OS X)

/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/Current/commands/java_home

points always the latest installed JDK.Can I somehow make Eclipse use always the directory this command is pointing to? Or do I have to hard-code the used JRE?

Answer 1

You can use an 'Execution Environment' (specified in 'Java > Installed JREs > Execution Environments') when you create your Java projects. For Java 8 this would be 'JavaSE-1.8'.

You can then just change which JDK is using for the Execution Environment in the preferences without having to change anything in your projects.