GVM vs Jabba
GVM
github.comJabba
github.comSide by side
| Figure | GVM | Jabba |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Spec score · Runtime Version Managers | 7.7 (#11) | 8.5 (#3) |
| Spec score · Development Environment Managers | 7.7 (#25) | 8.5 (#8) |
| License | The repository includes an MIT license granting permission to use, copy, modify, distribute, sublicense, and sell copies of the software subject to its conditions. | The repository is licensed under Apache License 2.0. |
| Platforms | The README provides requirements and setup instructions for macOS and Linux, and also lists FreeBSD requirements. | The README documents installation for macOS, Linux, and Windows 10, with OS and architecture support described as macOS, Linux x86/x86_64/ARMv7+, and Windows x86_64. |
| Purpose | GVM provides an interface to manage Go versions. | Jabba is a Java version manager inspired by nvm and written in Go. |
| Security | The GitHub security page opened for the repository displays no security details in the accessible page content. | GitHub reports that the project has no SECURITY.md policy and no published security advisories. |
Plans
In their own words
GVM
GVM is a free tool for managing Go versions on Linux and macOS. It installs and removes versions by tag, including releases and the tip version; `gvm listall` shows available release tags and can include weekly builds. Install options allow a source or name to be selected, along with settings for protobufs, build tools, and whether binaries are preferred or required. The `gvm diff` command reports files added to or removed from GOROOT. GVM also manages GOPATH package sets, including sets kept local to a repository, and can link project directories into GOPATH. Package sets can use their own native code and dependencies through an overlay prefix and related environment variables. The project supports version pinning, lockfiles, automatic switching, shell integration, and CI/CD use. Installation requires Bison; platform instructions also list tools such as Git, Mercurial, Make, and GCC. Compiling Go 1.5 or later requires an existing Go installation for bootstrapping, with Go 1.4 offered as an example. The repository includes an MIT license.
Jabba
Jabba is a free Java version manager written in Go for installing and switching among JDK versions on macOS, Linux and Windows. Its JDK index, powered by DiscoAPI, lists versions for the user's operating system and architecture. The README names distributions including Oracle, Adopt OpenJDK, Zulu, IBM SDK, GraalVM, OpenJDK, Liberica and Amazon Corretto. Users can list remote JDKs, filter versions with semantic version ranges, install versions and switch among those installed. A `.jabbarc` file can specify a project's JDK, while a default alias can select the version used in new terminals. Jabba can link to a system JDK and coexist with an existing Java installation. The README documents shell integration for bash, zsh and fish, plus installation through Homebrew, shell scripts, PowerShell, Scoop or Docker. Custom JDK downloads are also supported. Jabba does not switch Java globally on its own; the README gives manual platform-specific snippets instead. The repository describes Jabba as a community fork that is a work in progress and warns that some README instructions may be outdated. It is licensed under Apache-2.0.