asdf-java VS direnv

asdf-java to be precise.

So is asdf good then? I have been using SDKMAN! to install JDKs, but i noticed that Gradle will automatically detect JDKs installed using SDKMAN!, asdf, and Jabba [1], which signals to me that the other two are worth a look. Although now i dig into it, asdf does not have a first-party Java plugin, so the support is through a third-party plugin maintained by three people and a robot [2].

[1] https://docs.gradle.org/current/userguide/toolchains.html#se...

[2] https://github.com/halcyon/asdf-java/graphs/contributors

This is powering asdf-java.

❯ asdf plugin-list --urls --refs act https://github.com/grimoh/asdf-act.git master 8729029 aws-vault https://github.com/beardix/asdf-aws-vault.git master 937a1db awscli https://github.com/MetricMike/asdf-awscli.git main b9ba4c7 docker-slim https://github.com/everpeace/asdf-docker-slim.git master 4ee75a3 golang https://github.com/kennyp/asdf-golang.git master 1f388f1 helm https://github.com/Antiarchitect/asdf-helm.git master 87eef5a java https://github.com/halcyon/asdf-java.git master f0c702f jq https://github.com/ryodocx/asdf-jq.git master 3144577 kubectl https://github.com/asdf-community/asdf-kubectl.git master da7bb0b minikube https://github.com/alvarobp/asdf-minikube.git master 8ca7b8d mysql https://github.com/iroddis/asdf-mysql.git master 3aaf756 nodejs https://github.com/asdf-vm/asdf-nodejs.git master cb61e3d perl https://github.com/ouest/asdf-perl.git master 31bb799 php https://github.com/asdf-community/asdf-php.git master 759843b postgres https://github.com/smashedtoatoms/asdf-postgres.git master 4f8b356 python https://github.com/danhper/asdf-python.git master 8ab052f redis https://github.com/smashedtoatoms/asdf-redis.git master bf1276e ruby https://github.com/asdf-vm/asdf-ruby.git master f134c2d sbt https://github.com/bram2000/asdf-sbt.git master 33f9637 scala https://github.com/asdf-community/asdf-scala.git master 1206055 skaffold https://github.com/virtualstaticvoid/asdf-skaffold.git master c942ecf spark https://github.com/joshuaballoch/asdf-spark.git master 6fe49de

I think direnv already does a good job in this space, and it's already available in your package manager.

https://direnv.net/

I switched from asdf to mise after a comment on lobste.rs[1] suggested I do so a few months ago, and I have been very happy with it.

It sands off some of asdf's sharp UI edges and provides a somewhat larger but still reasonable feature set; I've also replaced most of my direnv[2] usage with it.

The mise -> asdf comparison page is useful[3]

1: https://lobste.rs/s/66uxbj/how_love_homebrew#c_mvmsjp

2: https://direnv.net/

3: https://mise.jdx.dev/dev-tools/comparison-to-asdf.html

I also made the export diff configurable, motivated by this post: https://github.com/direnv/direnv/pull/1233

Nice.

For years I've been using [direnv](https://direnv.net/) for this, setting environment variables which git picks up. This looks like a more feature complete equivalent, although to be honest I only really need switching of committer email and the SSH key used.

Direnv, for the uninitiated, loads and unloads environment variables when directories are entered and exited. Under every project folder there is a `$PROJ_DIR/.envrc` which contains:

buffer-env: A pure-Elisp version of the direnv utility. Useful to make Emacs aware of Python virtualenvs (which, judging by the questions posted here, is unfortunately still a complication for a lot of people). Similar to (and inspired by) envrc, but doesn't require the direnv program.

You can look at direnv to see this in action as they wrote shell hooks that get loaded into the shell profile and are executed on every prompt. https://direnv.net/

Yes, most Nix users employ https://direnv.net or the equivalent for your IDE of choice. Emacs for instance has https://github.com/purcell/envrc which set per-buffer variables.