Using SDKMan to Handle Many Software Development Versions

It could be challenging to deal with Java Multiverse, Gradle, Groovy, Maven, and Java (OpenJDK, Oracle JDK, Amazon Corretto, Microsoft OpenJDK, and other Java implementations). Handling versions is not a significant problem in a fantasy world where teams, tribes, squads, and whatever else operate well together and the version utilized is the most recent stable version. Yay! But, this circumstance is not real, wake up!

What is SDKMan?

SDKMan is a tool that allows you to manage multiple versions of software development kits (SDKs) on your computer. An SDK is a collection of tools that developers use to create software applications.

The SDKMan makes it simple to install, switch between, and manage SDKs for various programming languages such as Java, Kotlin, Groovy, and others. This tool allows you to install multiple versions of the same SDK and switch between them as needed, eliminating the need to worry about conflicting installations or configurations.

How to install?

It is super simple to install; simply enter the code below into your preferred terminal.

curl -s "https://get.sdkman.io" | bash

After that, add a script to your profile to load the SDK command (.bashrc, .zshrc, .bash_profile, .zprofile or .profile).

source "$HOME/.sdkman/bin/sdkman-init.sh"

Remember to reload your terminal.

Now that the sdk command is available, you can use it to list any sdk.

sdk list

To exit the interactive list, press 'q'.

Installing a SDK

Then, we'll install Oracle JDK version that are frequently used in projects. First, we'll go over the various Java versions that are currently available.

sdk list java

The most recent version of Oracle is 19.0.2-oracle, so it's time to install.

sdk install java 19.0.2-oracle

So you can install Maven as well.

sdk install maven 3.9.0 

Setting up a default version

The following command specifies the default version of the SDK.

sdk default java 19.0.2-oracle
sdk default maven 3.9.0

Versions currently installed

This is how you can check the versions that are currently installed.

sdk current

Setting up a setting for each project

You can set your SDK versions per project, first we need to create a file called .sdkmanrc.

sdk env init

Just a file sample produced by the upside command.

# Enable auto-env through the sdkman_auto_env config
# Add key=value pairs of SDKs to use below
java=19.0.2-oracle

The disadvantage is that we must load this environment to change the SDK version.

sdk env

Uninstall an SDK version

Nothing new here!

sdk uninstall java 19.0.2-oracle

Upgrading SDK

You can upgrade an only one SDK or all SDKs installed.

# only java
sdk upgrade java

# all sdks
sdk upgrade

Upgrading SDKMan

The following command upgrades the SDKMan tool.

sdk selfupdate

Removing SDKMan

If the tool does not attend to you, it is time to remove it.

rm -rf ~/.sdkman

Last thoughts

SDKMan solves issues when dealing with multiple SDKs and versions. Now that your kernel has been updated, God bless you, my brother!

References

• SDKMan docs