I just got an Java update notification that Update 17 is out, so I ran the update and found that only my public JRE was updated. I still only have Update 16 of the JDK.
Is there a way to have the latest JDK automatically when it's available?
Of course, the update shouldn't get rid of old versions. That should be done manually since Eclipse is still using the old version. Once I've updated my settings I would delete the old JDK manually.
Not on Windows. If you are getting your JDK via a linux distro with an auto-updater, you could depend on that. Somehow I doubt that is what you have in mind. I do not believe that there is any Sun-supplied auto-download for the JDK.
Under OS X this is part of the operating system and is automatically updated. For Windows you must do it yourself.
You could write an auto-downloader and auto-updater.
A solution for XP would be to have it remember a symlink (possible on NTFS) that is like
jdk -> jdk_1.6.16
Then, after install, update the symlink to point at
jdk -> jdk_1.6.17
After you write the auto-downloader/-updater, remember to share it with the community :)