# Launch current version of Julia from the terminal

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/launch-current-version-of-julia-from-the-terminal/44535>\
**Category:** General Usage\
**Created:** [August 8, 2020, 12:28am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/launch-current-version-of-julia-from-the-terminal/44535 "2020-08-08T00:28:49Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 8\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![onButtonUp](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/onbuttonup/32/3098_2.png) [@onButtonUp](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/onButtonUp)\
**Post date:** [August 8, 2020, 12:28am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/launch-current-version-of-julia-from-the-terminal/44535/1 "2020-08-08T00:28:49Z")

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After installing Julia 1.5, the terminal (Mac OS) still launches v1.4.2.

How can I get it to launch v1.5 ?

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**Author:** ![jling](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/jling/32/212909_2.png) [@jling](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/jling)\
**Post date:** [August 8, 2020, 12:41am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/launch-current-version-of-julia-from-the-terminal/44535/2 "2020-08-08T00:41:53Z")

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use `which julia` in terminal to figure out why it’s using the old julia; by default julia doesn’t install to your `PATH`, you you likely added the 1.4.2’s binary at some point

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**Author:** ![onButtonUp](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/onbuttonup/32/3098_2.png) [@onButtonUp](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/onButtonUp)\
**Post date:** [August 8, 2020, 12:56am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/launch-current-version-of-julia-from-the-terminal/44535/3 "2020-08-08T00:56:51Z")

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Okay, so, I removed the julia alias (and now v1.4.2 does not launch).

I tried to create an alias to the v1.5 (/Applications/Julia-1.5.app/Contents/Resources/julia/bin/julia) and it indicates that “permission is denied” when trying to open it. I don’t think that is the correct way to do it. But I thought I’d try.

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**Author:** ![onButtonUp](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/onbuttonup/32/3098_2.png) [@onButtonUp](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/onButtonUp)\
**Post date:** [August 8, 2020, 1:12am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/launch-current-version-of-julia-from-the-terminal/44535/5 "2020-08-08T01:12:44Z")

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I am pretty sure I am going about this the wrong way–the alias icons look differently, the size is wrong : /.

Below, the alias I created is the right-most info window . . .

 ![009](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/original/3X/1/f/1fec5f5f454d522489a4d2ad00ad344cc974dd64.png)

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**Author:** ![onButtonUp](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/onbuttonup/32/3098_2.png) [@onButtonUp](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/onButtonUp)\
**Post date:** [August 8, 2020, 1:30am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/launch-current-version-of-julia-from-the-terminal/44535/6 "2020-08-08T01:30:03Z")

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The following is the correct way. My bad (coming from a Windows background).

alias julia=“/Applications/Julia-1.5.app/Contents/Resources/julia/bin/julia”

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**Author:** ![NightMachinary](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/nightmachinary/32/14196_2.png) [@NightMachinary](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/NightMachinary)\
**Post date:** [August 8, 2020, 2:05am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/launch-current-version-of-julia-from-the-terminal/44535/7 "2020-08-08T02:05:16Z")

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This is not a very good way to do this. First of all, how did you install Julia? I suggest you use Homebrew to do it. It usually handles this stuff automatically. (`brew cask install julia`, after installing Homebrew itself.)

Now, to fix your problem correctly, it’s necessary that you understand a few things (which are essential to Unix): dotfiles that configure shells, the PATH variable, and the fact that setting the PATH globally on macOS is hard so most don’t bother.  
But to give you a shortcut, your problem can be solved by adding the following code to `~/.zshenv` and `~/.bashrc`:

```julia
addToPATH () {
    export PATH="$1:$PATH"
}
addToPATH /Applications/Julia-1.5.app/Contents/Resources/julia/bin/

```

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![onButtonUp](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/onbuttonup/32/3098_2.png) [@onButtonUp](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/onButtonUp)\
**Post date:** [August 8, 2020, 2:08am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/launch-current-version-of-julia-from-the-terminal/44535/8 "2020-08-08T02:08:32Z")

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Is this better ? It seemed to work . . .

ln -fs “/Applications/Julia-1.5.app/Contents/Resources/julia/bin/julia” /usr/local/bin/julia

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**Author:** ![NightMachinary](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/nightmachinary/32/14196_2.png) [@NightMachinary](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/NightMachinary)\
**Post date:** [August 8, 2020, 2:11am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/launch-current-version-of-julia-from-the-terminal/44535/9 "2020-08-08T02:11:25Z")

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Yes, that works just fine. `/usr/local/bin/` is already in your PATH, so linking there will make the binary discoverable.