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Updating Nextflow

This page describes Nextflow release cadence, how to self-update Nextflow, and how to select your version of Nextflow.

Releases

A stable version of Nextflow is released in the 4th and 10th month of each year. An edge version of Nextflow is released on a monthly basis. The edge version can be used to access the latest updates and experimental features.

Nextflow uses Calendar Versioning. Versions are numbered as <year>.<month>.<patch>. For example, 23.10.1 corresponds to the first patch of the October 2023 stable release.

See Migration notes for a list of migration guides for each stable release. See the changelog for an exhaustive list of changes across all releases.

Self-update

To update to the latest stable release of Nextflow, run the self-update command:

nextflow self-update

To use the latest edge release, set NXF_EDGE=1 when updating Nextflow:

NXF_EDGE=1 nextflow self-update

Note

When updating from an edge release to a stable release, you must explicitly set NXF_EDGE=0.

Warning

Nextflow will update its executable during the self-update process. The update can fail if the Nextflow executable is in a directory with restricted permissions.

Do not run nextflow self-update with sudo. If the executable or framework directory becomes owned by root, subsequent Nextflow commands can fail with Permission denied errors for your normal user account.

If self-update fails after a sudo install or update, recover the installation with the following steps:

  1. Remove the root-owned framework directory for the affected version, for example sudo rm -rf ~/.nextflow/framework/<version>.

  2. If needed, remove or replace a root-owned nextflow executable that was installed into a protected location such as /usr/local/bin.

  3. Reinstall Nextflow in a user-writable location such as $HOME/.local/bin.

  4. Run nextflow info or nextflow -v to confirm the installation works again.

Version selection

The NXF_VER environment variable can be used to define which version of Nextflow to use. To switch to a specific version of Nextflow for a single run, set the NXF_VER environment variable in your execution command. For example:

NXF_VER=23.10.0 nextflow info

To set a specific version of Nextflow for a terminal session, export the NXF_VER environment variable. For example:

export NXF_VER=23.10.0

To set a specific version of Nextflow for your user profile, add the above NXF_VER export command to your shell configuration file, such as ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc, and restart your session.

Tip

You can use NXF_VER to switch to an edge release. For example:

NXF_VER=24.06.0-edge nextflow info

Warning

Nextflow will update its executable during the self-update process. The update can fail if the Nextflow executable is in a directory with restricted permissions.