Unable to install java8 with homebrew

Installing java8 with Homebrew seems to no longer be working. After running:

brew install caskroom/cask/java8

I get the following error:

Error: Cask 'java8' is unavailable: '/usr/local/Homebrew/Library/Taps/caskroom/homebrew-cask/Casks/java8.rb' does not exist.

Simply doing:

brew cask install java8

Errors out with:

Error: Cask 'java8' is unavailable: No Cask with this name exists.

This seems like a recent development because I remember installing it this way a few months ago. Any suggestions on how to properly install java8 on MacOS nowadays?

New command is now :

brew install --cask homebrew/cask-versions/adoptopenjdk8

This has already been answered as a github issue: https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-cask-versions/issues/7253

TLDR: the java8 artefact refers to the Oracle distribution, which has ceased being supported/available. If you really need java 1.8 instead of the latest versions you can take a look at AdoptOpenJDK/homebrew-openjdk.

The command is now brew cask install homebrew/cask-versions/adoptopenjdk8

brew install homebrew/cask-versions/adoptopenjdk8 --cask

In the latest changes of homebrew cask will have to be at the last.

Although cask remove the support for JAVA8, we can still install JAVA8 using brew.

It requires the manual download of JAVA8.dmg and add the java8.rb which could be used by cask.

Machine: MAC

OS: Mojave (10.14.6)

JAVA version: java 8u231

Step-1

Download dmg file from Oracle Site. You require oracle account to download the same

Step-2

Start the HTTP server from the folder where you downloaded the dmg file. For me it's ~/Downlaods and I use python to start HTTP server:

python -m SimpleHTTPServer 8000

Step-3

Create file java8.rb in /usr/local/Homebrew/Library/Taps/homebrew/homebrew-cask/Casks (where java.rb exist) and add the following:

cask 'java8' do
  version '8u231,b15:9eef341qase34d44fbaa21'
  sha256 'f808d11b34fa9ee7b6326b5b6dd18544496e02c84b839d94e062bd4493df5d45'

  url "http://localhost:8000/jdk-#{version.before_comma}-macosx-x64.dmg",
      cookies: {
                 'oraclelicense' => 'accept-securebackup-cookie',
               }
  name 'Oracle Java 8 Standard Edition Development Kit'
  homepage 'https://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/overview/index.html'

  depends_on macos: '>= :yosemite'

  pkg 'JDK 8 Update 231.pkg'

  uninstall pkgutil: "com.oracle.jdk#{version.before_comma}",
            delete:  [
                       '/Library/Internet\ Plug-Ins/JavaAppletPlugin.plugin',
                       '/Library/PreferencePanes/JavaControlPanel.prefPane',
                     ]

  zap trash: [
               '~/Library/Application Support/Oracle/Java',
               '~/Library/Application Support/com.oracle.java.JavaAppletPlugin.plist',
               '~/Library/Application Support/com.oracle.javadeployment.plist',
             ]

  caveats do
    license 'https://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/terms/license/javase-license.html'
  end
end

Step-4

Now, install using brew:

brew cask install java8

Note: I got the SHA-256 checksum from the above mentioned java download link. You will have to change the version number, sha256 and pkg sections to use the specific version you downloaded if it is not 8u231 like mine.

For Homebrew 2.7.0. the brew cask commands are disabled

The command is now changed to

brew install --cask adoptopenjdk/openjdk/adoptopenjdk8

for new version use brew install --cask adoptopenjdk/openjdk/adoptopenjdk8

AdoptOpenJDK has been deprecated, and transitioned to Eclipse Temurin from Adoptium. See this blog post: https://blog.adoptopenjdk.net/2021/03/transition-to-eclipse-an-update/

To install Temurin Java 8, aka 1.8, with Homebrew, you can use:

brew tap homebrew/cask-versions
brew install --cask temurin8

If you already had AdoptOpenJDK installed using the commands in the other answers, you should uninstall it first, with:

brew uninstall --cask adoptopenjdk8

You can also download a .pkg for manual installation (the former link at AdoptOpenJDK now leads here): https://adoptium.net/?variant=openjdk8

The command is

 brew cask install adoptopenjdk8-openj9

Fixed my problem and I can run my project in java8

java -version

openjdk version "1.8.0_222

OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_222-b10)

Eclipse OpenJ9 VM (build openj9-0.15.1, JRE 1.8.0 Mac OS X amd64-64-Bit Compressed References 20190717_298 (JIT enabled, AOT enabled)

OpenJ9 - 0f66c6431

OMR - ec782f26

JCL - f147086df1 based on jdk8u222-b10)

For some of the newer version of operating system, We can use following command:

brew install --cask homebrew/cask-versions/adoptopenjdk8

Ask the user to install Oracle JDK 8 instead of java8