# Using different jdk for junit testing

**URL:** <https://discuss.gradle.org/t/using-different-jdk-for-junit-testing/11678>\
**Category:** Help/Discuss\
**Created:** [September 15, 2015, 11:26pm UTC](https://discuss.gradle.org/t/using-different-jdk-for-junit-testing/11678 "2015-09-15T23:26:13Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Jeff\_Storey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8c91f0/32.png) [@Jeff\_Storey](https://discuss.gradle.org/u/Jeff_Storey)\
**Post date:** [September 15, 2015, 11:26pm UTC](https://discuss.gradle.org/t/using-different-jdk-for-junit-testing/11678/1 "2015-09-15T23:26:13Z")

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I’m trying to use a different JDK to run my tests because gradle is running with java 7 and I want to run my tests with jdk 8. I am running gradle 2.3.

I set this option:

```
test {
   executable = "/path/to/jdk/bin/javac"
}

```

But I get the error

```
:testjavac: invalid flag: -Djava.security.manager=jarjar.org.gradle.process.internal.child.BootstrapSecurityManager
Usage: javac <options> <source files>

```

I have also set my options for compiling the source and test code using a different JDK, but that works fine. It’s just the running of the tests.

What am I doing incorrectly here?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Jeff\_Storey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8c91f0/32.png) [@Jeff\_Storey](https://discuss.gradle.org/u/Jeff_Storey)\
**Post date:** [September 15, 2015, 11:42pm UTC](https://discuss.gradle.org/t/using-different-jdk-for-junit-testing/11678/2 "2015-09-15T23:42:56Z")

</div>

Answered my own question here. I was passing the path to javac, not java.