When we work with only one project, we install needed version and don’t have any issues. But when we start to work with multiple projects with different versions of OpenTofu - we are in trouble. OpenTofu How could this problem be solved earlier? We downloaded the required version of OpenTofu and placed it somewhere in $PATH. After that we renamed the downloaded file and used it something like this: $ tofu-1.6.0-rc1 -version OpenTofu v1.6.0-rc1 on darwin_amd64 But this is hard and inconvenient to switch between versions, and we need to remember, which version of OpenTofu has to be used every time. Here is going to help us. tofuenv is an OpenTofu version manager. It allows us to easily install a version, switch between them, and set specific version for specific repository. tofuenv Installing tofuenv tofuenv can be installed to all major operating systems, such as MacOS, Linux and Windows. We can use brew to install tofuenv to the macos: $ brew tap tofuutils/tap $ brew install tofuenv For linux, we can manually install tofuenv. Check out tofuenv into any path (here is ) ${HOME}/.tofuenv $ git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/tofuutils/tofuenv.git ~/.tofuenv Add to your any way you like: ~/.tofuenv/bin $PATH bash: $ echo 'export PATH="$HOME/.tofuenv/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bash_profile zsh: $ echo 'export PATH="$HOME/.tofuenv/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.zprofile OR you can make symlinks for scripts into a path that is already added to your (e.g. ) Only! tofuenv/bin/* $PATH /usr/local/bin OSX/Linux $ ln -s ~/.tofuenv/bin/* /usr/local/bin On Ubuntu/Debian touching might require sudo access, but you can create or and on next login it will get added to the session or by running it will get added to the current shell session's . /usr/local/bin ${HOME}/bin ${HOME}/.local/bin $PATH . ${HOME}/.profile $PATH $ mkdir -p ~/.local/bin/ $ . ~/.profile $ ln -s ~/.tofuenv/bin/* ~/.local/bin $ which tofuenv Run tofuenv to verify installation and check available options: $ tofuenv tofuenv 1.0.3 Usage: tofuenv <command> [<options>] Commands: install Install a specific version of OpenTofu use Switch a version to use uninstall Uninstall a specific version of OpenTofu list List all installed versions list-remote List all installable versions version-name Print current version of OpenTofu init Update environment to use tofuenv correctly. pin Write the current active version to ./.opentofu-version In case of any problems, you may refer to official documentation at . tofuenv github repository Installing OpenTofu with tofuenv After we have tofuenv installed, we can install opentofu in the following way. To install specific version of opentofu use the following command: $ tofuenv install 1.6.0-rc1 To install latest stable version we can use specific word : latest $ tofuenv install latest But due to the fact that at the time of writing this article OpenTofu doesn’t have a stable version, installation via word doesn't work. latest Anyway, we can install the latest available version of OpenTofu 1.6: $ tofuenv install latest:1.6 tofuenv install latest:1.6 Installing OpenTofu v1.6.0-rc1 Downloading release tarball from https://github.com/opentofu/opentofu/releases/download/v1.6.0-rc1/tofu_1.6.0-rc1_darwin_amd64.zip ########################################################################################################################################################### 100.0% Downloading SHA hash file from https://github.com/opentofu/opentofu/releases/download/v1.6.0-rc1/tofu_1.6.0-rc1_SHA256SUMS Archive: /var/folders/nb/k6bv49gd4pd9kyvwwn519_2m0000gn/T/tofuenv_download.XXXXXX.fqdxfWoz/tofu_1.6.0-rc1_darwin_amd64.zip inflating: /usr/local/Cellar/tofuenv/1.0.3/versions/1.6.0-rc1/CHANGELOG.md inflating: /usr/local/Cellar/tofuenv/1.0.3/versions/1.6.0-rc1/LICENSE inflating: /usr/local/Cellar/tofuenv/1.0.3/versions/1.6.0-rc1/README.md inflating: /usr/local/Cellar/tofuenv/1.0.3/versions/1.6.0-rc1/tofu Installation of tofu v1.6.0-rc1 successful. To make this your default version, run 'tofuenv use 1.6.0-rc1' For now the latest available version of OpenTofu 1.6 is 1.6.0-rc1 and for that reason, it was installed by tofuenv. : If is present in the path, tofuenv will verify the download against OpenTofu published sha256 hash. Also GPG signature will be added for verification as soon as OpenTofu will support it. Note shasum List OpenTofu versions With tofuenv we can list locally installed versions and remote versions, which are available for installation. To list locally installed versions, run the following command: $ tofuenv list 1.6.0-alpha1 * 1.6.0-rc1 (set by /usr/local/Cellar/tofuenv/1.0.3/version) Asterisk marks the version currently used. To list remote versions, run the following command: $ tofuenv list-remote 1.6.0-rc1 1.6.0-beta5 1.6.0-beta4 1.6.0-beta3 1.6.0-beta2 1.6.0-beta1 1.6.0-alpha5 1.6.0-alpha4 1.6.0-alpha3 1.6.0-alpha2 1.6.0-alpha1 OpenTofu placed binary in GitHub, and GitHub has a strict rate limiting rule for non-authorised users. Because of this, you can catch the 403 error or "GitHub Rate limits exceeded" error. You can set environment variable with your own GitHub token for authentication against GitHub api and drastically increase the rate limits. TOFUENV_GITHUB_TOKEN Switch a version to use To switch between versions, we can use couple of techniques. First of all, with use parameter: use $ tofuenv use 1.6.0-alpha1 Switching default version to v1.6.0-alpha1 Default version (when not overridden by .opentofu-version or TOFUENV_TOFU_VERSION) is now: 1.6.0-alpha1 By default, environment variable is set to true, and if version 1.6.0-alpha2 of OpenTofu isn’t available locally, it will be downloaded and used automatically: TOFUENV_AUTO_INSTALL $ tofuenv use 1.6.0-alpha2 No installed versions of opentofu matched '^1.6.0-alpha2$'. Trying to install a matching version since TOFUENV_AUTO_INSTALL=true Installing OpenTofu v1.6.0-alpha2 Downloading release tarball from https://github.com/opentofu/opentofu/releases/download/v1.6.0-alpha2/tofu_1.6.0-alpha2_darwin_amd64.zip ########################################################################################################################################################### 100.0% Downloading SHA hash file from https://github.com/opentofu/opentofu/releases/download/v1.6.0-alpha2/tofu_1.6.0-alpha2_SHA256SUMS Archive: /var/folders/nb/k6bv49gd4pd9kyvwwn519_2m0000gn/T/tofuenv_download.XXXXXX.3DyehSoJ/tofu_1.6.0-alpha2_darwin_amd64.zip inflating: /usr/local/Cellar/tofuenv/1.0.3/versions/1.6.0-alpha2/CHANGELOG.md inflating: /usr/local/Cellar/tofuenv/1.0.3/versions/1.6.0-alpha2/LICENSE inflating: /usr/local/Cellar/tofuenv/1.0.3/versions/1.6.0-alpha2/README.md inflating: /usr/local/Cellar/tofuenv/1.0.3/versions/1.6.0-alpha2/tofu Installation of tofu v1.6.0-alpha2 successful. To make this your default version, run 'tofuenv use 1.6.0-alpha2' Switching default version to v1.6.0-alpha2 Default version (when not overridden by .opentofu-version or TOFUENV_TOFU_VERSION) is now: 1.6.0-alpha2 Second option is to use file. If that file is present in the directory and contains needed version, it will be used automatically: .opentofu-version project1$ tofu -version OpenTofu v1.6.0-rc1 on darwin_amd64 project1$ cat .opentofu-version 1.6.0-rc1 project1$ cd ../project2 project2$ tofu -version OpenTofu v1.6.0-alpha1 on darwin_amd64 project2$ cat .opentofu-version 1.6.0-alpha1 That file can be created manually, for example: $ echo 1.6.0-alpha1 > .opentofu-version Or with using special command from tofuenv. That command will save currently used version of opentofu to the file in current directory: pin $ tofu -version OpenTofu v1.6.0-rc1 on darwin_amd64 $ tofuenv pin Pinned version by writing "1.6.0-rc1" to ./.opentofu-version Uninstall unneeded versions For the cleanup of unneeded installed version we can use command: uninstall $ tofuenv uninstall 1.6.0-rc1 Uninstall OpenTofu v1.6.0-rc1 OpenTofu v1.6.0-rc1 is successfully uninstalled In conclusion is a great open-source alternative to Terraform. Our team of tofuenv creators (me, and ) believes that OpenTofu will take decisive place in the market, and tofuenv will help everyone to use it successfully. OpenTofu Alexander Sharov Anastasiia Kozlova
