Manage multiple Java SDKs with asdf with ease
asdf is a helpful command-line tool that allows you to manage and switch between different versions of programming language runtimes including Java, Kotlin, Node.js, Python and their associated packages and libraries including Gradle, Maven, Yarn, Spring Boot CLI.
asdf is supported for all major operating systems including Windows via Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 (WSL2).
Depending on your setup (OS, shell and installation method) you need to perform several steps in order to make sure asdf works correctly. Consult the documentation for more details: https://asdf-vm.com/guide/getting-started.html.
I work on macOS with Iterm2 and oh-my-zsh, so the setup was to install asdf with Homebrew (brew install asdf) and then to install asdf for oh-my-zsh (https://github.com/ohmyzsh/ohmyzsh/tree/master/plugins/asdf)
Install and manage Java versions
Once you have asdf installed, you can use the following steps to install and manage Java versions:
- Add the
Javaplugin toasdfby running:asdf plugin add java. - List all available
Javaversions by running:asdf list all java. Tip: Pipe the command withgrepif you are looking for specific runtime. - Use the
asdf installcommand to install a specificJavaversion. For example, to installGraalVMwithJava 19support, you would runasdf install java graalvm-22.3.0+java19:
➜ ~ asdf install java graalvm-22.3.0+java19
###################### 100.0%
graalvm-ce-java19-darwin-amd64-22.3.0.tar.gz
graalvm-ce-java19-darwin-amd64-22.3.0.tar.gz: OK
- Use the
asdf globalcommand to set the default version ofJavato use on your machine. For example, to set previously installed version as the default version, you would runasdf global graalvm-22.3.0+java19:
➜ ~ asdf global java graalvm-22.3.0+java19
➜ ~ java -version
openjdk version "19.0.1" 2022-10-18
OpenJDK Runtime Environment GraalVM CE 22.3.0 (build 19.0.1+10-jvmci-22.3-b08)
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM GraalVM CE 22.3.0 (build 19.0.1+10-jvmci-22.3-b08, mixed mode, sharing)
Global defaults are managed in $HOME/.tool-versions file:
➜ ~ tail $HOME/.tool-versions
java graalvm-22.3.0+java19
In contrary, when you want to use version specific to a directory you would use asdf local command which creates $PWD/.tool-versions file. Now, each you navigate to that directory, asdf picks the versions and set them properly for this directory only.
Note: To set
JAVA_HOMEenvironment variable during shell initialization you need to add. ~/.asdf/plugins/java/set-java-home.zshto your shell configuration file (e.g.~/.zshrc).
Install other tools
There are many language runtimes and tools you can manage with asdf. The process is as follows:
- You look for the plugin (e.g.
asdf plugin list all | grep gradle) - You add the plugin (e.g.
asdf plugin add gradle) - You find the version you want to manage (e.g.
asdf list all gradle) - You install the selected version of langugate runtime or tool (e.g.
asdf install gradle 7.6)
Alternative: SDKMAN!
Before I discovered asdf, I used SDKMAN!. SDKMAN! is a tool for managing parallel versions of multiple SDKs and once installed, it provides a convenient sdk command for installing, switching, removing and listing installed SDKs. Learn more about it from my blog post: Manage multiple Java SDKs with SDKMAN! with ease
