Getting started

Install dv

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/adrum/dv/main/install.sh | sh

On Windows, in PowerShell:

powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -c "irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/adrum/dv/main/install.ps1 | iex"

Either script downloads the build for your platform, verifies it against the published sha256, and puts dv in ~/.local/bin (override with DV_BIN_DIR). Neither touches your shell profile or PATH — that line is yours to paste, below.

From source instead:

cargo build --release
install -m 0755 target/release/dv /usr/local/bin/dv

Get an SDK

dv install lts          # newest long-term-support SDK
dv install 10.0         # newest 10.0.x
dv install 10.0.4xx     # newest in the 10.0.400 feature band
dv install 10.0.402     # exactly this one
dv install              # whatever global.json here asks for

Previews install the same way — dv install 11 installs the newest 11 preview while 11 has not shipped. Once a release exists, lines prefer it.

Put the shims on PATH

eval "$(dv init zsh)"   # or bash, sh, fish

Add that to your shell profile. It does two things:

• prepends dv’s shim directory to PATH, which matters: a shim directory placed after /usr/local/share/dotnet or a package manager’s prefix is silently shadowed by whatever dotnet is already there;
• sets DOTNET_ROOT to dv’s combined install root, so global tools and apps built with an app host find a runtime dv installed.

Then open a new shell — or run hash -r, because shells cache command locations and yours may still remember a dotnet from before dv existed.

On Windows, add this to your PowerShell $PROFILE instead:

dv init powershell | Out-String | Invoke-Expression

cmd, editors and anything started outside PowerShell read the user PATH, so put %LOCALAPPDATA%\dv\shims at the front of that as well, and set DOTNET_ROOT to %LOCALAPPDATA%\dv\dotnet, then open a new terminal.

dv doctor

Doctor confirms it worked and says plainly what to fix when it did not.

Pin an SDK for a project

cd ~/code/legacy-app
dv pin 8.0
dotnet --version        # 8.0.x, here and below

dv pin writes global.json — the file dotnet, Visual Studio, Rider and CI images already read — and keeps anything else in it. Commit it, and everyone on the project gets the same SDK. How a version is chosen explains what 8.0 turns into.

Run something under the resolved SDK

dv run dotnet-ef migrations add Init

dv run finds the command in the resolved SDK, then among global tools, then on PATH, and points it at the resolved SDK’s install root. dotnet and dnx need nothing special: their shims already do this.

Where dv keeps things

Everything lives in one directory — $XDG_DATA_HOME/dv, else ~/.local/share/dv, or %LOCALAPPDATA%\dv on Windows; set DV_HOME to put it elsewhere. Removing dv is deleting that directory and the binary.