[ANN] jvc.sh - yet another shell installer for Julia

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1

Hi all,

I have written an ugly (at least at the current stage) but probably(?) useful shell script jvc.sh for Julia installation and version management.

Perhaps you can consider jvc.sh as a heavy version of jill.sh or something similar to jill.py but in shell. If you are already a user of jill.py, this script might not be really useful for you since it only supports Linux and MacOS.

There are a few motivations:

  1. I want to reduce dependency as much as possible (e.g., I might not prefer to install a python script using pip first to install Julia)
  2. Julia is evolving rather fast and I guess most people are eager to try the new version. (e.g., 1.6.1 is released merely 1 month later after 1.6.0)
  3. I would also like to have a fast version switching locally to check possible different behaviors. (e.g., I do have some experience where packages fail to work after a patch…)
  4. It turns out that perhaps I would like to have something similar to nvm-sh.
  5. IonCLI.jl would probably be a better option in the future if the binary size can be reduced. Also the original motivation is on package management. See [ANN] IonCLI: your package manager and more in terminal

Install JVC and configure your paths:

  1. git clone to your preferred path (e.g.～/.jvc)
    git clone https://github.com/songxianxu/jvc ~/.jvc
  2. In your shell config file, e.g., .bashrc or .zshrc, add the following environment variables
    export PATH=$PATH:~/.jvc:~/.local/bin/jvc/
    The second path ~/.local/bin/jvc/ is the where jvc search julia symlink, feel free to change it, however, you would also need to change it in .jvcrc accordingly. (I would try to avoid modifying other’s rc files)

If you want to change the julia tarball download folder or installation folder, you can change the environment variables in .jvcrc. Mac users can uncomment the section for Mac in .jvcrc

Note: frankly speaking, .jvcrc should not even exist in the first place as it is just some environment variables. It is used to store and modify UPSTREAM_NAME locally. I am thinking of get rid of the .jvcrc file in the future.

Explanation of these environment variables:

  • JULIA_DOWNLOAD_DIR: where julia tarball is downloaded
  • JULIA_INSTALL_DIR: where julia is installed
  • JULIA_SYMLINK_DIR: where julia symlink is stored
  • UPSTREAM_NAME: name of upstream, no manually invention required. Can be adjust using jvc upstream

Basic usage

Install Julia

jvc install # default install current stable verision (Now 1.6.1)
jvc install 1 # will install the stable major version 1 which is 1.6.1 
jvc install 1.5 # will install 1.5.4
jvc install 1.5.4
jvc install 1.6.0 
jvc install 1.6.0-rc1
jvc install lts # 1.0.5
jvc install rc # 1.6.0-rc3
jvc install nightly
jvc nightly
jvc installed # list all installed julia version by checking JULIA_INSTALL_DIR

jvc_install

Download tarball only
jvc download [version] # Similar logic to install

Load/unload symlink for specific version
jvc load 1.5.3 to make julia-1.5.3 available
jvc unload 1.5.3 to remove julia-1.5.3 unavailable (this is not to uninstall julia 1.5.3, just remove the symlink)
jvc loaded show all loaded version
jvc purge unload all loaded version in case you have loaded too many:). julia symlink will still remain.

**Switch julia symlink **
jvc switch 1.5.3 to make julia symlink use julia 1.5.3

Show status of julia installation and loaded
jvc status
Show installed version, loaded version, downloaded version and upstream

jvc_st
jvc_st594×560 21.7 KB

Search for a version
jvc search [version]

Query all available version exist

jvc avail/available 
jvc avail all  #including rc and beta

jvc_avail

Uninstall Julia
jvc remove
jvc_remove
No version info is needed. A list of installed version will be shown and you will need to manually key in the version to uninstall (for safety).

Julia version migration (keep track of Project.toml and Manifest.toml）
jvc migrate 1.5 to 1.6
This will simply cp the Project.toml 和 Manifest.toml in the corresponding version environment folders`

Change the upstream for downloading
jvc upstream
Perhaps you will want to change the upstream for fast downloading.
The information is stored in upstream.conf.

Side notes

  • It is the first time for me to write such a lengthy shell script and there are too many places I should improve on but yet I have not started to work towards on. I have referred from nvm-sh and jill.sh during the work.
  • Initially, I would like to call it jvm but it probably coincides with java virtual machine?
  • Suggestions are welcome and hopefully someone can kick me out of the comfort zone (simply because it is working now…but some of the utilities are not sustainable as far as I can see).
  • The MacOS compatibility still requires further testing as I do not have a MacOS device.
  • Many thanks @JohnnyChen94 for useful feedback and discussions.

Some related projects:

15 Likes
2

Another related tool is asdf. It has a Julia plugin and provides a CLI that looks similar to the one you adopted in jvc. A difference w.r.t jvc is that eing a generic tool (that supports installation and update of many software), asdf does not provide Julia-specific commands like jvc migrate.

1 Like
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Thanks for the reminder. I wasn’t aware of it when I started to write this installer but I was reminded by others later on and also in JuliaCN where I first announce it.

asdf should be able to satisfy most of the needs such as installation and version management. For me, I might want to have some extra features such as changing the upstreams and possibly some other features which are more Julia specify…Also I was trying to get rid of github dependent version checking due to some funny reasons. :slight_smile: