asdf¹ is a tool version manager.

All tool version definitions are contained within one file (.tool-versions²) which you can check in to your project's Git repository to share with your team.

asdf

• ensures teams are using the exact same versions of tools (for each project)
• supports Github Actions (you can use the same configuration for local dev machine and CI/CD workflows)
• support for many tools via a plugin system³
• is simple (it's a single Shell script you include in your Shell config)

• Install asdf core⁴: official guide⁵

• Install asdf plugins & the tools for each project

  • For each of the projects, e.g. node-19, node-20

    • "Install" asdf plugins⁶ for tools defined in .tool-versions

      cat .tool-versions | awk '{print $1}' | xargs -I _ asdf plugin add _

      [!IMPORTANT] You need to "install" plugin for a tool, before using asdf to install a version of that tool.

      e.g.

      asdf plugin add node

      [!TIP] Plugins are how asdf knows to handle different tools like Node.js, Ruby, ...

  • For each of the tool, install the version defined in .tool-versions

  asdf install

  [!TIP] In asdf words, asdf install "Installs all the package versions listed in the .tool-versions file"

• Confirm that for each project, the correct version of tool is invoked

  cd node-19
  node -v       # Should be v19.0.0
  cd ../node-20 #
  node -v       # Should be v20.0.0

  cd kubectl-1.28.3
  kubectl version      # Client Version: v1.28.3
  cd ../kubectl-1.29.4 #
  kubectl version      # Client Version: v1.29.4