Question: I know this question was asked so many times but I never found an answer that relates to my question.
I am trying to install Apache Tomcat server on my MacBook Pro. All answers were answered for Windows and Eclipse. I want to install and configure the server using Terminal. So the problem is happening at the last step of the installation. I am getting the below error while installing the server.
I know this is a problem is about Java version at run time, but I can't fix it.
Note: I have already updated my Java version to the latest one.
Please help.

> 
> Exception in thread "main" java.lang.UnsupportedClassVersionError:
> org/apache/catalina/startup/Bootstrap : Unsupported major.minor
> version 51.0
> 
> 
> 
> ```
>     at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass1(Native Method)
>     at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClassCond(ClassLoader.java:631)
>     at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass(ClassLoader.java:615)
>     at java.security.SecureClassLoader.defineClass(SecureClassLoader.java:141)
>     at java.net.URLClassLoader.defineClass(URLClassLoader.java:283)
>     at java.net.URLClassLoader.access$000(URLClassLoader.java:58)
>     at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:197)
>     at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
>     at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(URLClassLoader.java:190)
>     at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:306)
>     at sun.misc.Launcher$AppClassLoader.loadClass(Launcher.java:301)
>     at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:247)
> 
> ```
> 
>

Answer: 
You say you've got the latest version, but then you also say you're using Java 1.6\_051. That is *not* the latest version of Java.

You need Java 7 - see [this page](http://www.java.com/en/download/faq/java_mac.xml) for how to install Java 7 on Mac OSX.

If you can't install Java 7 on your machine for some reason, you'll need to use a different version of Tomcat. Tomcat 8 *requires* Java 7, as shown on the ["which version" Tomcat page](http://tomcat.apache.org/whichversion.html). You might also wish to consider using an older version of Tomcat anyway, given that Tomcat 8.0 is still only at RC-1 level - I would typically stick with a stable version unless you're willing to take on the pain of pre-releases.
For Tomcat 8 Any installed Java 7 or later JRE (32-bit or 64-bit) may be used.

Please read the requirements 

<http://tomcat.apache.org/tomcat-8.0-doc/setup.html>