Every .tool-versions needs a .envrc?

[gullitmiranda]

When we are using the asdf standalone, it always takes into consideration the .tool-versions of the current directory, however the use asdf behaves different.

This takes me the following questions:

1. Is this behavior really expected? If yes, I think it would be good to add a note about it.

2. Is there no way to always take into consideration '.tool-versions' from the current directory? If anyone can help me by identifying .tool-version correct I believe I can work on this change

This difference in behavior made me lose a few hours trying to understand why .tool-versions of the sub project did not work 🤦

My Setup

• ~/.envrc

use asdf

• ~/.tool-versions

direnv 2.30.3
nodejs 17.4.0

• ~/project/.envrc

source_up .envrc
use asdf

• ~/project/.tool-versions

nodejs 16.14.0

• ~/project/sub-project/.tool-versions

nodejs 14.19.0

Behaviors

• (✅ OK) Home directory:

$ cd ~/
direnv: loading ~/.envrc
direnv: using asdf
direnv: Creating env file ~/.asdf/installs/direnv/2.30.3/env/3953415231-2784736007-4011808011-2769317095
direnv: loading ~/.asdf/installs/direnv/2.30.3/env/3953415231-2784736007-4011808011-2769317095
direnv: using asdf nodejs 17.4.0
direnv: using asdf direnv 2.30.3

$ node --version
v17.4.0

$ which node
~/.asdf/installs/nodejs/17.4.0/bin/node

• (✅ OK) Project directory:

$ cd ~/project
direnv: loading ~/project/.envrc
direnv: loading ~/.envrc
direnv: using asdf
direnv: loading ~/.asdf/installs/direnv/2.30.3/env/3953415231-2784736007-4011808011-2769317095
direnv: using asdf nodejs 17.4.0
direnv: using asdf direnv 2.30.3
direnv: using asdf
direnv: loading ~/.asdf/installs/direnv/2.30.3/env/2059550318-3277659698-894641201-398937083
direnv: using asdf pnpm 6.30.1
direnv: using asdf direnv 2.30.3
direnv: using asdf nodejs 16.14.0

$ node --version
v16.14.0

$ which node
~/.asdf/installs/nodejs/16.14.0/bin/node

• (❌ not the same behaviour of asdf) Sub Project directory:

$ cd ~/project/sub-project
# same output from ~/project

$ node --version
v16.14.0

$ which node
~/.asdf/installs/nodejs/16.14.0/bin/node

[jfly]

Ooh that's a very interesting point, and I can see the confusion. Unfortunately, I don't think we can change this behavior in any sane way, as direnv executes .envrc files with cwd set to the folder that script is in. In other words, in your example, from within the ~/project/.envrc file, there's no way to tell the difference between "we're currently in ~/project" and "we're currently in ~/project/sub-project/".

This is actually good and useful behavior for direnv to have. If it didn't act that way, you might experience different behavior in this two situations:

1. cd-ing directly from ~ to ~/project/sub-project
2. cd-ing from ~ to ~/project and then to ~/project/sub-project

In scenario 1), you'll end up with an environment formed by evaluating ~/project/.envrc with CWD =
~/project/sub-project, and in scenario 2), you'll end up with an environment formed by evaluating ~/project/.envrc with CWD =
~/project/ (the second cd won't do anything, because there's no new .envrc file to evaluate).

direnv/direnv#218 talks about this exact issue in great detail.

So, I think the answer to your question is: "yes, this behavior is expected". Would you be open to sending in a PR adding a note about it, @gullitmiranda?