vfox is a cross-platform version manager(similar to nvm, fvm, sdkman, asdf-vm, etc.), extendable via plugins. It allows you to different versions for different projects, different versions for different shell. It also supports to lock runtime version for project or shell and support for existing config files .node-version, .nvmrc, .sdkmanrc for easy migration. Available Plugins: https://vfox.lhan.me/plugins/available.html Supported Shell: Powershell、Clink、Cmder、Bash、ZSH |
I'm not exactly understanding the use case for this.
Is this like a modern day Cygwin?
Compared to Cygwin, vfox is just a small tool which is more like scoop.
Simply put, while scoop can only install the latest version, vfox can install any version, and has some extra features for project development, such as using different versions for different projects, automatic switching between versions, and so on.
Plus is supports many more tools than just the language vms
Volta exists but alas, it's only for JavaScript.
But on unix it is also built using python-build. For me, a light python user, there is no difference between using vfox and using pyenv.
It's an alternative approach to what containers do. (Or an alternative to strict version policies such as "all Node and Python should be done with current LTS, no exceptions".)
There are similar tools on Linux, so the noteworthy thing about this one is it is Windows native.
Most languages work that way just fine. Java, node, python, go. The only bad player that I've found is Rust, its distribution is absolute mess.
That's basically this. But not bespoke for node (like nvm) or python (like pyenv) or protobuf, but as one tool that promises to do this for all your tools
so for example you can install nodejs lts and latest side by side and then easily swap which version is currently used when running node.
There are already tools like nvm (node version manager) that does the same but this one works for multiple tools instead of just one.
For most of my career at large tech orgs working with node.js/frontend stack, python, go, and even java, I always needed things like conda, nvm, etc...
Heck, even working with C (and CUDA), I would love to have an easy way to switch system-wide C/CXX compiler versions.
Replace python with many other tools from Java, node, etc.
This happens to me all the time. I wasn't formally educated and didn't spend my formative years around computer people. So I have holes in my knowledge and misunderstand parlance if it's not specific to my personal 10% of the software world. E.g. in the beginning, it took me a few years to realize that when people say "frontend", they virtually always mean web frontend.
Seems pretty clear to me?
PS C:\Users\username> dotnet --list-sdks
7.0.408 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]
8.0.101 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]
8.0.104 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]
8.0.204 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]
8.0.300-preview.24118.4 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]
At $dayjob, we have to support non-current compilers/SDKs for five different languages and runtimes where our tool will invoke (shell out, often) the CLIs for those tools. When triaging a bug report, it's great to have a version manager to use exactly the customer's version of the CLI.
Likewise, we need to make sure all of our examples and templates build even if the user has an old version, and the surest way to validate that is to hide newer CLIs and tools, and to test on the range of binaries that a customer could have installed.
There's still some utility in automating changing your PATH when you switch between projects: do you need to support multiple shells with different syntaxes for changing environment variables? Do you need to synchronize those shells sometimes? Do you need to change PATH for random combinations of multiple tools at once? Do you want to have a tool verify for you that you are changing PATH to refer to a version currently installed? And maybe automate installing it if isn't?
This particular tool supports a half-dozen different shells (on Windows) and a single file to setup PATH (and other environment variable changes) for any number and combination of tools all at the same time.
If you are happy with your manual PATH changes today and don't see a reason to automate them, then you might not need a tool to automate them. If you find yourself changing PATH a lot more frequently and hoping to automate it more, there are tools for that. As with anything, automation is a spectrum and what you might not do enough to automate someone else might do a lot more often than you and could use some form of automation to speed things up and/or catch easy or dumb mistakes.
To put it simply, vfox will help you do this. Unzip node, golang, etc. to $HOME/.version-fox/cache. When you write `vfox use node@10.1.1`, it will automatically configure PATH for you. Free your hands, you don't need to think about where to download nodejs, golang, etc. runtime, nor how to configure PATH. Especially on Windows, configuring PATH is still quite troublesome.
I deal with hundreds of different repos/projects that use various versions of various runtimes and I have to switch versions sometimes multiple times a day, sometimes multiple times a week.
Why would I want to unpack an entire language runtime into ANOTHER directory when I can enter the directory and write "nvm use system"? And if I want to install a specific version of node, without having to dig around for the url on nodejs' website I write "nvm install 21.7.3" and it installs it. Then I use it.
Like, it's practically weaponized incompetence to just dig your head in the sand and not use these practically standardized tools that everyone else has been using for 15+ years. Do you dislike using package managers as well? Apt? Nix?
I don't feel like dealing with HNs terrible formatting system but this is how much work I do to install and change versions of one runtime. I deal with TONS of runtimes throughout the week.
Also this is just one runtime, I also have to deal with python, ruby, go, terraform and many other versions so these "aggregate" runtime version managers like asdf etc are awesome.
######
-> (base) workspace nvm list
-> system
iojs -> N/A (default)
node -> stable (-> N/A) (default)
unstable -> N/A (default)
-> (base) workspace nvm use system
Now using system version of node: v21.7.3 (npm v10.5.0)
-> (base) workspace nvm install 21.7.3
Downloading and installing node v21.7.3... Downloading https://nodejs.org/dist/v21.7.3/node-v21.7.3-darwin-arm64.ta...... ############################################################################################################################################################ 100.0% Computing checksum with sha256sum Checksums matched!
Now using node v21.7.3 (npm v10.5.0)
Creating default alias: default -> 21.7.3 (-> v21.7.3)
-> (base) workspace nvm use 21.7.3
Now using node v21.7.3 (npm v10.5.0)