Quick Start

This assumes dvm is installed and on your PATH. It takes about two minutes, most of which is one SDK download.

1. Install a Dart SDK#

dvm install 3.13.2

Installed Dart 3.13.2 to /Users/you/.dvm/versions/3.13.2

You can name a channel instead of a version, and dvm asks the archive what it currently means:

dvm install stable

The version that resolved to is recorded in ~/.dvm/config.json, which is what lets you later pin stable without dvm needing the network. See Aliases and Channels.

2. Set up the shim#

You only ever do this once per machine:

dvm setup

Wrote /Users/you/.dvm/shims/dart
  -> /Users/you/.dvm/bin/dvm exec dart

Add this to ~/.zshrc:

  export PATH="/Users/you/.dvm/shims:$PATH"

Then check it with: dvm doctor

Add that line, open a new shell, and confirm:

dvm doctor

The shim page explains what that file is and why its position on PATH matters.

3. Pin a project#

cd ~/code/my-project
dvm use 3.13.2

Pinned Dart 3.13.2 for /Users/you/code/my-project.
  /Users/you/code/my-project/.dvmrc -> commit this
  /Users/you/code/my-project/.dvm/dart_sdk -> /Users/you/.dvm/versions/3.13.2 (for your IDE; do not commit it)
`.dvm/` is not ignored yet by /Users/you/code/my-project/.gitignore. Add it with: dvm use 3.13.2 --gitignore

Two files were written, and the difference between them matters:

• .dvmrc is the pin. It is two lines of JSON and you commit it. It is what makes the pin apply to everyone who clones the repository.
• .dvm/dart_sdk is a link into your own ~/.dvm, for IDEs that want an SDK path. It is machine-local and you do not commit it. dvm use --gitignore adds the rule for you.

dvm use installs the version first if you do not have it yet, so one command covers both. It also writes both files into the directory that holds the pin: run it deeper in a project that already has a .dvmrc above you and it updates that one, naming the file it changed. dvm use has the detail.

4. Watch dart follow the pin#

dart --version
# Dart SDK version: 3.13.2 (stable) ...

cd ..
dart --version
# whatever applies out here — a different pin, your global default, or the system Dart

The dart on your PATH is dvm's shim, and it resolves per directory on every invocation — so both answers are current, and you switched nothing.

5. Ask why, whenever you need to#

dvm which

/Users/you/.dvm/versions/3.13.2/bin/dart
Dart 3.13.2
Chosen by rule 2 of 5: pinned by /Users/you/code/my-project/.dvmrc.
SDK: /Users/you/.dvm/versions/3.13.2

That second-to-last line is the one to remember. dvm has exactly five resolution rules, and dvm which always names the one that answered. Whenever you want to know why you got the SDK you got, this is the first command to run.

Where to go next#