🔁 asdf Flutter version manager (MacOS/ Linux)

Without a doubt, Flutter is a framework that is constantly changing. And as developers, we need to be ready and have more than one version installed at the same time.

One of the most famous solutions for this problem is Flutter Version Manager by leofarias. I personally used this solution for several months, but I always had some problems with it.

A few weeks ago I came across asdf, which according to its documentation:

asdf is a tool version manager. All tool version definitions are contained within one file (.tool-versions) which you can check in to your project's Git repository to share with your team, ensuring everyone is using the exact same versions of tools.

In a nutshell, it allows us to handle multiple versions of different tools (which I found interesting as it could be useful for other tools like: cocoapods,ruby,node.js, etc.)

How to use asdf with flutter?

Official docs: here

Install asdf

# MacOS with Homebrew
brew install asdf

# Linux
# Check: https://asdf-vm.com/guide/getting-started.html#_1-install-dependencies

ASDF Flutter plugin

Once asdf is installed, we have to install the asdf flutter plugin

# Installs flutter-plugin for asdf
asdf plugin-add flutter

Github Repo: asdf flutter plugin

install/uninstall a version

# List all available flutter versions
asdf list all flutter

Preview:

# Install a version 
asdf install flutter <VERSION_NUMBER>

# Example:
asdf install flutter 2.5.2-stable

# to uninstall
asdf uninstall flutter <VERSION_NUMBER>

Local and global version

# Defines a global flutter version to be used 
asdf global flutter <VERSION_NUMBER>

# Defines a local flutter version to be used 
asdf local flutter <VERSION_NUMBER>

Export to $PATH

To have access to the currently selected version, you need to export asdf flutter to $PATH.In my case, I added the following line to my /.zshrc.

export PATH="$(asdf where flutter)/bin":"$PATH"

With this you will have access to the flutter and dart commands from any terminal 👍.

... and dart?

dart is included by default with the asdf flutter plugin. However, sometimes you need a different dart version. This can be accomplished by running the same commands mentioned above, but substituting flutter with dart.

# Install asdf-dart

asdf plugin-add dart https://github.com/patoconnor43/asdf-dart.git

# More info in: https://github.com/PatOConnor43/asdf-dart

As always...

You can share this article to help another developer to continue improving their productivity when writing applications with Flutter.

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Also, if you liked this content, you can find even more and keep in contact with me on my socials:

Also, if you liked this content, you can find even more and keep in contact with me on my socials:

• dev.to - where you're reading this article.
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• Twitch - where I do informal live shows from which I take clips with specific information.
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🇪🇸 Versión en español de este articulo aquí

Comments

[Victor Novy]

If this type of error happens you must install the jq package

How to install jq on mac

sudo apt install -y jq

[Vitaly Simakov]

There is a problem with the installation at the moment. The solution is on this page https://github.com/asdf-community/asdf-flutter/issues/44

selution:

asdf plugin-add jq
asdf install jq latest
asdf global jq latest

Please add to the post for those who encounter this problem.