asdf/README.md

# asdf [![Build Status](https://travis-ci.org/asdf-vm/asdf.svg?branch=master)](https://travis-ci.org/asdf-vm/asdf)
### _extendable version manager_

Supported languages include Ruby, Node.js, Elixir and [more](https://github.com/asdf-vm/asdf-plugins). Supporting a new language is as simple as [this plugin API](https://github.com/asdf-vm/asdf/blob/master/docs/creating-plugins.md).

## SETUP

Copy-paste the following into command line:

```bash
git clone https://github.com/asdf-vm/asdf.git ~/.asdf --branch v0.3.0
```

Depending on your OS, run the following
```bash
# For Ubuntu or other linux distros
echo -e '\n. $HOME/.asdf/asdf.sh' >> ~/.bashrc
echo -e '\n. $HOME/.asdf/completions/asdf.bash' >> ~/.bashrc

# OR for Mac OSX
echo -e '\n. $HOME/.asdf/asdf.sh' >> ~/.bash_profile
echo -e '\n. $HOME/.asdf/completions/asdf.bash' >> ~/.bash_profile
```

If you use zsh or any other shell, replace `.bashrc` with the config file for the respective shell.

For fish, you can use the following:

```
echo 'source ~/.asdf/asdf.fish' >> ~/.config/fish/config.fish
mkdir -p ~/.config/fish/completions; and cp ~/.asdf/completions/asdf.fish ~/.config/fish/completions
```

> For most plugins, it is good if you have installed the following packages OR their equivalent on your OS

> * **OS X**: Install these via homebrew `coreutils automake autoconf openssl libyaml readline libxslt libtool unixodbc`
> * **Ubuntu**: `automake autoconf libreadline-dev libncurses-dev libssl-dev libyaml-dev libxslt-dev libffi-dev libtool unixodbc-dev`
> * **Fedora**: `automake autoconf readline-devel ncurses-devel openssl-devel libyaml-devel libxslt-devel libffi-devel libtool unixODBC-devel`

**That's all ~! You are ready to use asdf**

-----------------------


## USAGE

### Manage plugins

Plugins are how asdf understands how to handle different packages.

You can find a list of all asdf plugins in the [plugins repository](https://github.com/asdf-vm/asdf-plugins).

There is a [super-simple API](https://github.com/asdf-vm/asdf/blob/master/docs/creating-plugins.md) for supporting more languages.

##### Add a plugin

```bash
asdf plugin-add <name>
# asdf plugin-add erlang
```

If the plugin you want to install is not part of the plugins repository, you can add it using its repository URL:

```bash
asdf plugin-add <name> <git-url>
# asdf plugin-add elm https://github.com/vic/asdf-elm
```

##### List installed plugins

```bash
asdf plugin-list
# asdf plugin-list
```

##### Remove a plugin

```bash
asdf plugin-remove <name>
# asdf plugin-remove erlang
```


##### Update plugins

```bash
asdf plugin-update --all
```

If you want to update a specific package, just say so.

```bash
asdf plugin-update <name>
# asdf plugin-update erlang
```

### Manage versions

```bash
asdf install <name> <version>
# asdf install erlang 17.3

asdf current <name>
# asdf current erlang
# 17.3 (set by /Users/kim/.tool-versions)

asdf uninstall <name> <version>
# asdf uninstall erlang 17.3
```

*If a plugin supports downloading & compiling from source, you can also do this `ref:foo` (replace `foo` with the branch/tag/commit).* You'll have to use the same name when uninstalling too.

##### Lists installed versions

```bash
asdf list <name>
# asdf list erlang
```

##### List all available versions

```bash
asdf list-all <name>
# asdf list-all erlang
```

#### View current version

```bash
asdf current <name>
# asdf current erlang
# 17.3 (set by /Users/kim/.tool-versions)
```

#### Set current version

```bash
asdf global <name> <version>
asdf local <name> <version>
# asdf global elixir 1.2.4
```

`global` writes the version to `$HOME/.tool-versions`.

`local` writes the version to `$PWD/.tool-versions`, creating it if needed.

Alternatively, if you want to set a version only for the current shell session
or for executing just a command under a particular tool version, you
can set an environment variable like `ASDF_${TOOL}_VERSION`.

The following example runs tests on an Elixir project with version `1.4.0`.
The version format is the same supported by the `.tool-versions` file.

```shell
ASDF_ELIXIR_VERSION=1.4.0 mix test
```

## The `.tool-versions` file

Add a `.tool-versions` file to your project dir and versions of those tools will be used.
**Global defaults can be set in the file `$HOME/.tool-versions`**

This is what a `.tool-versions` file looks like:

```
ruby 2.2.0
nodejs 0.12.3
```

The versions can be in the following format:

* `0.12.3` - an actual version. Plugins that support downloading binaries, will download binaries.
* `ref:v1.0.2-a` or `ref:39cb398vb39` - tag/commit/branch to download from github and compile
* `path:/src/elixir` - a path to custom compiled version of a tool to use. For use by language developers and such.
* `system` - this keyword causes asdf to passthrough to the version of the tool on the system that is not managed by asdf.

To install all the tools defined in a `.tool-versions` file run the `asdf install` command with no other arguments in the directory containing the `.tool-versions` file.

You can view/modify the file by hand or use `asdf local` and `asdf global` to manage it.

## The `$HOME/.asdfrc` config file

Add a `.asdfrc` file to your home directory and asdf will use the settings specified in the file. The file should be formatted like this:

```
legacy_version_file = yes
```

**Settings**

* `legacy_version_file` - defaults to `no`. If set to yes it will cause plugins that support this feature to read the version files used by other version managers (e.g. `.ruby-version` in the case of Ruby's rbenv).

## Docker images

The [asdf-alpine](https://github.com/vic/asdf-alpine) and [asdf-ubuntu](https://github.com/vic/asdf-ubuntu) projects are an ongoing effort to provide Dockerized images of some asdf tools. You can use these docker images as base for your development servers, or for running your production apps.

## Development

To develop the project, you can simply `git clone` the master branch.
If you want to try out your changes without making change to your installed `asdf`,
you can set the `$ASDF_DIR` variable to the path where you cloned the repository,
and temporarily prepend the `bin` and `shims` directory of the directory to your path.

We use [bats](https://github.com/sstephenson/bats) for testing,
so make sure `bats test/` passes after you made your changes.

## Credits

Me ([@HashNuke](https://github.com/HashNuke)), High-fever, cold, cough.

Copyright 2014 to the end of time ([MIT License](https://github.com/asdf-vm/asdf/blob/master/LICENSE))

### Maintainers

- [@HashNuke](https://github.com/HashNuke)
- [@tuvistavie](https://github.com/tuvistavie)
- [@Stratus3D](https://github.com/Stratus3D)
- [@vic](https://github.com/vic)

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Read the [ballad](https://github.com/asdf-vm/asdf/blob/master/ballad-of-asdf.md).