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asdf-vm
asdf
Go2015–2026
asdf-vm / asdf

asdf

Extendable version manager with support for Ruby, Node.js, Elixir, Erlang & more

Command Line
Explore on GitHubRead Hacker News discussions
69Distinct people
84Mentions
2Explicit recommenders
25.6KGitHub stars
REPOSITORY AT A GLANCE

What to know before exploring

What it is

Extendable version manager with support for Ruby, Node.js, Elixir, Erlang & more

GitHub

Where it is used

No documented product use was verified in the last source check.

What people are saying

I love asdf but the one thing that bugs me is that running `asdf install` inside a folder containing a .tool-versions file won't automatically install the plugins needed to…

codethief used a recommendation phrase. 2 indexed comments match. This is a phrase match, not a verdict.

No classified warning is attached to this page. Read the discussions before treating silence as approval.

Also in these discussions

Mentioned in the same Hacker News threads. That is not proof they are substitutes.

This week on Hacker News

Nov 8–Nov 15 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/15/2026, 4:00:59 PM UTC.

No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.

Mentions over time

HN mentions by year84 dated mentions

Observed mentions: 2015-05-22 16:39:07 UTC to 2026-03-24 17:06:57 UTC.

051015202015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 2 mentions; 0 submissions, 2 comments20152016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 5 mentions; 1 submissions, 4 comments2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 7 mentions; 3 submissions, 4 comments2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 11 mentions; 3 submissions, 8 comments2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 9 mentions; 2 submissions, 7 comments2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 4 mentions; 0 submissions, 4 comments20202021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 8 mentions; 3 submissions, 5 comments2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 20 mentions; 2 submissions, 18 comments2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 8 mentions; 0 submissions, 8 comments2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 6 mentions; 1 submissions, 5 comments2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 3 mentions; 1 submissions, 2 comments2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2027-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 comments. Incomplete calendar period.2026*

* An incomplete calendar period is marked with an outlined bar. Its count is not directly comparable with a full period.

Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.

View mention counts and date ranges
UTC ranges include their start and exclude their end. Select a period to filter the source evidence.
PeriodStart (UTC)End (exclusive, UTC)MentionsSubmissionsComments
20152015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC202
20162016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC514
20172017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC734
20182018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC1138
20192019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC927
20202020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC404
20212021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC835
20222022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC20218
20232023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC808
20242024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC615
20252025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC312
2026 (partial)2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2027-01-01 00:00:00 UTC101

What Hacker News says

4 sources
e12e·Oct 29, 2020
> is there a version manager I should be using? > I am familiar with nvm and pyenv for managing Node and Python versions, respectively, however the tutorial I was following did not mention any Ruby version manager. I took to the internet and found the highly popular, rbenv. If you want "just" a version manager for ruby, I'd go with rbenv. But if you use, say, node and python too - I'd go with asdf: https://github.com/asdf-vm/asdf https://github.com/asdf-vm/asdf-ruby Keeps the stampede of VMs out of your bashrc.
In Ruby on Rails in a week
bow_·Apr 25, 2020
And `pyenv` [1], for Python. I came into `nodenv` after being a regular user of `pyenv` for a while. Started with `nvm`, but wished for something more pyenv-like. There is also `asdf` [2], which seems even more generic. On paper it looks interesting, but I haven't found a solid reason to switch out of `pyenv` and `nodenv`. Has anyone tried `pyenv` and/or `nodenv` and switched to `asdf`? [1] https://github.com/pyenv/pyenv [2] https://github.com/asdf-vm/asdf
In How to Install Node.js for Ubuntu 20.04 LTS?
pmontra·Jan 12, 2020
Virtualenv lets you use only a Python interpreter that's already installed on your system. Usually the choice is between the latest v2 and v3 interpreter, at least on Debian derivatives. Every virtualenv is autoupgraded each time the OS upgrades its Pythons. If you want to use multiple versions of Python and pin them, you should use something like asdf [1] and its Python plugin [2]. It's a version manager with support for many languages and more. I used it for Elixir, Node, PHP, Ruby and even PostgreSQL (I need different database versions in different projects.) I never used it for Python because I'm OK with being on the latest version so far. With asdf I would expect to do something like this asdf install python 3.7.5 mkdir my375project cd my375project asdf local python 3.7.5 # pick the version to use here python3 -m venv py375
Read the rest
--python=~/.asdf/installs/python/3.7.5/bin/python ~/.virtualenvs/py375/bin/activate This virtualenv is going to stay on 3.7.5 forever. [1] https://github.com/asdf-vm/asdf [2] https://github.com/danhper/asdf-python
In OpenBSD won't update Firefox, advises users to switch to ESR

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