This doesn’t appear to be documented or posted anywhere I could find with google, but this is the insane syntax you need:
jdk-8u51-windows-x64.exe /s ADDLOCAL=”ToolsFeature,PublicjreFeature” /INSTALLDIRPUBJRE=”C:\java\jre” /L “C:\java.txt” INSTALLDIR=C:\java\jdk
INSTALLDIR existed in Java 6/7 but had a slash before it. For some reason in JDK 8, you must do it slashless.
(If you wonder “Why install the JRE/JDK to C:\Java instead of C:\Program Files”, the answer is because You’re Running Jenkins and vcvarsall.bat hates you)
(Also: If you want to wait while the JDK installs, do “start /wait jdk.exe ..”. but if you’re in cygwin you can’t, because start isn’t a program, it’s a command inside cmd.exe, so do “cmd.exe /c start /wait jdk.exe …”)
