Getting Started

asdf installation involves:

1. Installing dependencies
2. Downloading asdf core
3. Installing asdf
4. Installing a plugin for each tool/runtime you wish to manage
5. Installing a version of the tool/runtime
6. Setting global and project versions via .tool-versions config files

1. Install Dependencies

asdf primarily requires git & curl. Here is a non-exhaustive list of commands to run for your package manager (some might automatically install these tools in later steps).

OS	Package Manager	Command
linux	Aptitude	apt install curl git
linux	DNF	dnf install curl git
linux	Pacman	pacman -S curl git
linux	Zypper	zypper install curl git
macOS	Homebrew	brew install coreutils curl git
macOS	Spack	spack install coreutils curl git

Note

sudo may be required depending on your system configuration.

2. Download asdf

Official Download

git clone https://github.com/asdf-vm/asdf.git ~/.asdf --branch v0.14.1

Community Supported Download Methods

We highly recommend using the official git method.

Method	Command
Homebrew	brew install asdf
Pacman	git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/asdf-vm.git && cd asdf-vm && makepkg -si or use your preferred AUR helper

3. Install asdf

There are many different combinations of Shells, OSs & Installation methods all of which affect the configuration here. Expand the selection below that best matches your system.

macOS users, be sure to read the warning about path_helper at the end of this section.

Bash & Git

Add the following to ~/.bashrc:

. "$HOME/.asdf/asdf.sh"

Completions must be configured by adding the following to your .bashrc:

. "$HOME/.asdf/completions/asdf.bash"

Bash & Git (macOS)

If using macOS Catalina or newer, the default shell has changed to ZSH. Unless changing back to Bash, follow the ZSH instructions.

Add the following to ~/.bash_profile:

. "$HOME/.asdf/asdf.sh"

Completions must be configured manually with the following entry in your .bash_profile:

. "$HOME/.asdf/completions/asdf.bash"

Bash & Homebrew

Add asdf.sh to your ~/.bashrc with:

echo -e "\n. \"$(brew --prefix asdf)/libexec/asdf.sh\"" >> ~/.bashrc

Completions will need to be configured as per Homebrew's instructions or with the following:

echo -e "\n. \"$(brew --prefix asdf)/etc/bash_completion.d/asdf.bash\"" >> ~/.bashrc

Bash & Homebrew (macOS)

If using macOS Catalina or newer, the default shell has changed to ZSH. Unless changing back to Bash, follow the ZSH instructions.

Add asdf.sh to your ~/.bash_profile with:

echo -e "\n. \"$(brew --prefix asdf)/libexec/asdf.sh\"" >> ~/.bash_profile

Completions will need to be configured as per Homebrew's instructions or with the following:

echo -e "\n. \"$(brew --prefix asdf)/etc/bash_completion.d/asdf.bash\"" >> ~/.bash_profile

Bash & Pacman

Add the following to ~/.bashrc:

. /opt/asdf-vm/asdf.sh

bash-completion needs to be installed for the completions to work.

Fish & Git

Add the following to ~/.config/fish/config.fish:

source ~/.asdf/asdf.fish

Completions must be configured manually with the following command:

mkdir -p ~/.config/fish/completions; and ln -s ~/.asdf/completions/asdf.fish ~/.config/fish/completions

Fish & Homebrew

Add asdf.fish to your ~/.config/fish/config.fish with:

echo -e "\nsource "(brew --prefix asdf)"/libexec/asdf.fish" >> ~/.config/fish/config.fish

Completions are handled by Homebrew for the Fish shell. Friendly!

Fish & Pacman

Add the following to ~/.config/fish/config.fish:

source /opt/asdf-vm/asdf.fish

Completions are automatically configured on installation by the AUR package.

Elvish & Git

Add asdf.elv to your ~/.config/elvish/rc.elv with:

mkdir -p ~/.config/elvish/lib; ln -s ~/.asdf/asdf.elv ~/.config/elvish/lib/asdf.elv
echo "\n"'use asdf _asdf; var asdf~ = $_asdf:asdf~' >> ~/.config/elvish/rc.elv
echo "\n"'set edit:completion:arg-completer[asdf] = $_asdf:arg-completer~' >> ~/.config/elvish/rc.elv

Completions are automatically configured.

Elvish & Homebrew

Add asdf.elv to your ~/.config/elvish/rc.elv with:

mkdir -p ~/.config/elvish/lib; ln -s (brew --prefix asdf)/libexec/asdf.elv ~/.config/elvish/lib/asdf.elv
echo "\n"'use asdf _asdf; var asdf~ = $_asdf:asdf~' >> ~/.config/elvish/rc.elv
echo "\n"'set edit:completion:arg-completer[asdf] = $_asdf:arg-completer~' >> ~/.config/elvish/rc.elv

Completions are automatically configured.

Elvish & Pacman

Add asdf.elv to your ~/.config/elvish/rc.elv with:

mkdir -p ~/.config/elvish/lib; ln -s /opt/asdf-vm/asdf.elv ~/.config/elvish/lib/asdf.elv
echo "\n"'use asdf _asdf; var asdf~ = $_asdf:asdf~' >> ~/.config/elvish/rc.elv
echo "\n"'set edit:completion:arg-completer[asdf] = $_asdf:arg-completer~' >> ~/.config/elvish/rc.elv

Completions are automatically configured.

ZSH & Git

Add the following to ~/.zshrc:

. "$HOME/.asdf/asdf.sh"

OR use a ZSH Framework plugin like asdf for oh-my-zsh which will source this script and setup completions.

Completions are configured by either a ZSH Framework asdf plugin or by adding the following to your .zshrc:

# append completions to fpath
fpath=(${ASDF_DIR}/completions $fpath)
# initialise completions with ZSH's compinit
autoload -Uz compinit && compinit

• if you are using a custom compinit setup, ensure compinit is below your sourcing of asdf.sh
• if you are using a custom compinit setup with a ZSH Framework, ensure compinit is below your sourcing of the framework

Warning

If you are using a ZSH Framework the associated asdf plugin may need to be updated to use the new ZSH completions properly via fpath. The Oh-My-ZSH asdf plugin is yet to be updated, see ohmyzsh/ohmyzsh#8837.

ZSH & Homebrew

Add asdf.sh to your ~/.zshrc with:

echo -e "\n. $(brew --prefix asdf)/libexec/asdf.sh" >> ${ZDOTDIR:-~}/.zshrc

OR use a ZSH Framework plugin like asdf for oh-my-zsh which will source this script and setup completions.

Completions are configured by either a ZSH Framework asdf or will need to be configured as per Homebrew's instructions. If you are using a ZSH Framework the associated plugin for asdf may need to be updated to use the new ZSH completions properly via fpath. The Oh-My-ZSH asdf plugin is yet to be updated, see ohmyzsh/ohmyzsh#8837.

ZSH & Pacman

Add the following to ~/.zshrc:

. /opt/asdf-vm/asdf.sh

Completions are placed in a ZSH friendly location, but ZSH must be configured to use the autocompletions.

PowerShell Core & Git

Add the following to ~/.config/powershell/profile.ps1:

. "$HOME/.asdf/asdf.ps1"

PowerShell Core & Homebrew

Add asdf.sh to your ~/.config/powershell/profile.ps1 with:

echo -e "\n. \"$(brew --prefix asdf)/libexec/asdf.ps1\"" >> ~/.config/powershell/profile.ps1

PowerShell Core & Pacman

Add the following to ~/.config/powershell/profile.ps1:

. /opt/asdf-vm/asdf.ps1

Nushell & Git

Add asdf.nu to your ~/.config/nushell/config.nu with:

"\n$env.ASDF_DIR = ($env.HOME | path join '.asdf')\n source " + ($env.HOME | path join '.asdf/asdf.nu') | save --append $nu.config-path

Completions are automatically configured

Nushell & Homebrew

Add asdf.nu to your ~/.config/nushell/config.nu with:

"\n$env.ASDF_DIR = (brew --prefix asdf | str trim | into string | path join 'libexec')\n source " +  (brew --prefix asdf | str trim | into string | path join 'libexec/asdf.nu') | save --append $nu.config-path

Completions are automatically configured

Nushell & Pacman

Add asdf.nu to your ~/.config/nushell/config.nu with:

"\n$env.ASDF_DIR = '/opt/asdf-vm/'\n source /opt/asdf-vm/asdf.nu" | save --append $nu.config-path

Completions are automatically configured.

POSIX Shell & Git

Add the following to ~/.profile:

export ASDF_DIR="$HOME/.asdf"
. "$HOME/.asdf/asdf.sh"

POSIX Shell & Homebrew

Add asdf.sh to your ~/.profile with:

echo -e "\nexport ASDF_DIR=\"$(brew --prefix asdf)/libexec/asdf.sh\"" >> ~/.profile
echo -e "\n. \"$(brew --prefix asdf)/libexec/asdf.sh\"" >> ~/.profile

POSIX Shell & Pacman

Add the following to ~/.profile:

export ASDF_DIR="/opt/asdf-vm"
. /opt/asdf-vm/asdf.sh

asdf scripts need to be sourced after you have set your $PATH and after you have sourced your framework (oh-my-zsh etc).

WARNING

On macOS, starting a Bash or Zsh shell automatically calls a utility called path_helper. path_helper can rearrange items in PATH (and MANPATH), causing inconsistent behavior for tools that require specific ordering. To workaround this, asdf on macOS defaults to forcily adding its PATH-entries to the front (taking highest priority). This is controllable with the ASDF_FORCE_PREPEND variable.

Restart your shell so that PATH changes take effect. Opening a new terminal tab will usually do it.

Core Installation Complete!

This completes the installation of the asdf core 🎉

asdf is only useful once you install a plugin, install a tool and manage its versions. Continue the guide below to learn how to do this.

4. Install a Plugin

For demonstration purposes we will install & set Node.js via the asdf-nodejs plugin.

Plugin Dependencies

Each plugin has dependencies so we need to check the plugin repo where they should be listed. For asdf-nodejs they are:

OS	Dependency Installation
Debian	apt-get install dirmngr gpg curl gawk
CentOS/ Rocky Linux/ AlmaLinux	yum install gnupg2 curl gawk
macOS	brew install gpg gawk

We should install dependencies first as some Plugins have post-install hooks.

Install the Plugin

asdf plugin add nodejs https://github.com/asdf-vm/asdf-nodejs.git

5. Install a Version

Now we have a plugin for Node.js we can install a version of the tool.

We can see which versions are available with asdf list all nodejs or a subset of versions with asdf list all nodejs 14.

We will just install the latest available version:

asdf install nodejs latest

Note

asdf enforces exact versions. latest is a helper throughout asdf that will resolve to the actual version number at the time of execution.

6. Set a Version

asdf performs a version lookup of a tool in all .tool-versions files from the current working directory up to the $HOME directory. The lookup occurs just-in-time when you execute a tool that asdf manages.

WARNING

Without a version listed for a tool execution of the tool will error. asdf current will show you the tool & version resolution, or absence of, from your current directory so you can observe which tools will fail to execute.

Global

Global defaults are managed in $HOME/.tool-versions. Set a global version with:

asdf global nodejs latest

$HOME/.tool-versions will then look like:

nodejs 16.5.0

Some OSs already have tools installed that are managed by the system and not asdf, python is a common example. You need to tell asdf to pass the management back to the system. The Versions reference section will guide you.

Local

Local versions are defined in the $PWD/.tool-versions file (your current working directory). Usually, this will be the Git repository for a project. When in your desired directory execute:

asdf local nodejs latest

$PWD/.tool-versions will then look like:

nodejs 16.5.0

Using Existing Tool Version Files

asdf supports the migration from existing version files from other version managers. Eg: .ruby-version for the case of rbenv. This is supported on a per-plugin basis.

asdf-nodejs supports this via both .nvmrc and .node-version files. To enable this, add the following to your asdf configuration file $HOME/.asdfrc:

legacy_version_file = yes

See the configuration reference page for more config options.

Guide Complete!

That completes the Getting Started guide for asdf 🎉 You can now manage nodejs versions for your project. Follow similar steps for each type of tool in your project!

asdf has many more commands to become familiar with, you can see them all by running asdf --help or asdf. The core of the commands are broken into three categories:

• core asdf
• plugins
• versions (of tools)