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vfox

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If you switch between development projects which expect different environments, specifically different runtime versions or ambient libraries, or you are tired of all kinds of cumbersome environment configurations, vfox is the ideal choice for you.

Introduction

vfox is a cross-platform version manager(similar to nvm, fvm, sdkman, asdf-vm, etc.), extendable via plugins. It allows you to quickly install and switch between different environment you need via the command line.

Why use vfox?

cross-platform support (Windows, Linux, macOS)
consistent commands to manage all your languages
supports different versions for different projects, different shells, and globally.
simple plugin system to add support for your runtime of choice
automatically switches runtime versions as you traverse your project
support for existing config files .node-version, .nvmrc, .sdkmanrc for easy migration
shell completion available for common shells (Bash, ZSH, Powershell, Clink)
it's faster than asdf-vm, and offers more simple commands and genuine cross-platform unification. see Comparison with asdf

Demo

Quickstart

For detailed installation instructions, see Quick Start

1. Choose an installation that works for you.

2. ⚠️ Hook `vfox` into your shell (pick one that works for your shell) ⚠️

echo 'eval "$(vfox activate bash)"' >> ~/.bashrc
echo 'eval "$(vfox activate zsh)"' >> ~/.zshrc
echo 'vfox activate fish | source' >> ~/.config/fish/config.fish

# For PowerShell:
if (-not (Test-Path -Path $PROFILE)) { New-Item -Type File -Path $PROFILE -Force }; Add-Content -Path $PROFILE -Value 'Invoke-Expression "$(vfox activate pwsh)"'

# For Clink:
# 1. Install clink: https://github.com/chrisant996/clink/releases
#    Or Install cmder: https://github.com/cmderdev/cmder/releases
# 2. Find script path: clink info | findstr scripts
# 3. copy internal/shell/clink_vfox.lua to script path

Remember to restart your shell to apply the changes.

3. Add an SDK plugin

$ vfox add nodejs

4. Install a runtime

$ vfox install nodejs@21.5.0

5. Switch runtime

$ vfox use nodejs@21.5.0
$ node -v
21.5.0

Full Documentation

See vfox.lhan.me for full documentation.

Roadmap

Our future plans and high priority features and enhancements are:

Refactoring the plugin mechanism:
- Introducing plugin templates to facilitate multi-file plugin development.
- Establishing a global registry (similar to NPM Registry or Scoop Main Bucket) to provide a unified entry point for plugin distribution.
- Decomposing the existing plugin repository into individual repositories, one for each plugin.
Allowing the switching of registry addresses.
Plugin capabilities: Parsing legacy configuration files, such as .nvmrc, .node-version, .sdkmanrc, etc.
Plugin capabilities: Allowing plugins to load installed runtimes and provide information about the runtime.