Installing Python on macOS with asdf

I've just migrated from Ubuntu to macOS for work and am still in the process of setting up the machine. I've been a lifelong Linux user and this is the first time I've picked up an OS that's not just another flavor of Debian. Primarily, I work with Python, NodeJS, and a tiny bit of Go. Previously, any time I had to install these language runtimes, I'd execute a bespoke script that'd install: - Python via [deadsnake] ppa. - NodeJS via [nvm]. - Go from the [official Go binary source]. Along with the hassle of having to manage three version managers, setting up multiple versions of Python almost always felt like a chore. I've used [pyenv] before which kind of feels like nvm and works quite well in practice. However, on Twitter, I came across [this reply by Adam Johnson] which mentions that [asdf] can manage multiple runtimes of different languages - one version manager to rule them all. Also, it's written in pure bash so there's no external dependency required for the tool to work. Since I'm starting from scratch on a new OS, I wanted to give this a tool to try. Spoiler alert, it works with zero drama. Here, I'll quickly explain how to get up and running with multiple versions of Python and make them work seamlessly. Prerequisites For this to work, I'm assuming that you've got [homebrew] installed on your system. Install asdf with the following command: Once asdf is installed, you'll need to install the [asdf Python plugin]. Run this: Also, you'll need to make sure that your system has the [asdf plugin dependencies] in place. Bootstrapping Python Once the prerequisites are fulfilled, you're ready to install the Python versions from the source. Let's say you want to install Python 3.11. To do so, run: This will install Python in the /Users/$USER/.asdf/shims/python3.11 location. Just concat the command to install multiple versions of Python: Selecting a specific Python version Once you've installed your desired Python versions with asdf, if you try to invoke global Python with python or python3 command, you'll encounter the following error: To address this, you can run the next command to select the latest available version of Python (here it's 3.11.0) as the global default runtime: Running this will add a $HOME/.tool-versions file with the following content: You can also select other Python versions as the global runtime like this: In a project, if you want to use a specific Python version other than the global one, you can run: This will add a $PATH/.tool-versions similar to the global file. Now you can just go ahead and start using that specific version of Python. Running this command will create a virtual environment using the locally specified Python runtime and start the interpreter inside that: Removing a runtime Running asdf uninstall python will do the trick. [deadsnake]: https://launchpad.net/~deadsnakes/+archive/ubuntu/ppa [nvm]: https://github.com/nvm-sh/nvm [official Go binary source]: https://go.dev/dl/ [pyenv]: https://github.com/pyenv/pyenv [this reply by Adam Johnson]: https://twitter.com/AdamChainz/status/1591131543262867456?s=20&t=cl7NMLREat945aSICfk-9g [asdf]: https://asdf-vm.com/ [homebrew]: https://brew.sh/ [asdf Python plugin]: https://github.com/asdf-community/asdf-python [asdf plugin dependencies]: https://asdf-vm.com/guide/getting-started.html#plugin-dependencies