Erlang and Elixir: Managing Multiple versions with asdf

Often keeping multiple versions of Erlang or Elixir on the same machine might become necessary; also it helps to have the latest versions on your machine as soon as they are released. An amazing tool asdf is capable of doing just that. It makes things as easy as,

asdf install erlang 20.3.2
asdf install elixir 1.6.4
asdf global elixir 20.3.2
asdf global elixir 1.6.4

Yes, I know, it’s like pyenv for everything! However, getting painless Erlang builds is a bit difficult that just following the docs. On Ubuntu, it helps if you install a few packages beforehand to enable a fully functional build. Often, missing out on a few packages prevent the observer or the docs from being built.

Setting up Ubuntu 17.10

sudo apt-get install build-essential autoconf m4 libncurses5-dev libwxgtk3.0-dev libgl1-mesa-dev libglu1-mesa-dev libpng-dev libssh-dev unixodbc-dev fop xsltproc

Just installing these packages should ensure that the prerequisites are there in place.

Up Next

Now, just follow the instructions for installing asdf!