The best way to find out which Hex package you need!
Notes
When I’m adding a package to my project, I always find it a pain to go to GitHub or Hexdocs to find the right version.
Recently, I came across a better solution!
Finding a version of a Hex package
Try mix hex.info <package>.
Let’s take a look at an example. My current project doesn’t have Oban, so I want
to see which version I should target in my mix.exs file:
$ mix hex.info oban
Robust job processing, backed by modern PostgreSQL, SQLite3, and MySQL.
Config: {:oban, "~> 2.19"}
Releases: 2.19.2, 2.19.1, 2.19.0, 2.18.3, 2.18.2, 2.18.1, 2.18.0, 2.17.12, ...
Licenses: Apache-2.0
Links:
Changelog: https://github.com/oban-bg/oban/blob/main/CHANGELOG.md
GitHub: https://github.com/oban-bg/oban
Website: https://oban.pro
There you go.
We can just add {:oban, "~> 2.19"} to our list of dependencies, and we’ll get
version 2.19.2.
Checking what’s in your lock file
Don’t leave just yet. mix hex.info has another cool trick!
If you’re already using a package, you can use mix hex.info to see what’s in
your lock file.
Let’s check which version of phoenix_test I have in my mix.lock file:
$ mix hex.info phoenix_test
Write pipeable, fast, and easy-to-read feature tests for your Phoenix apps in
a unified way -- regardless of whether you're testing LiveView pages or static
pages.
Config: {:phoenix_test, "~> 0.5.2"}
Locked version: 0.5.2
Releases: 0.5.2, 0.5.1, 0.5.0, 0.4.2, 0.4.1, 0.4.0, 0.3.2, 0.3.1, ...
Licenses: MIT
Links:
Github: https://github.com/germsvel/phoenix_test
As you can see, I have a Locked version: 0.5.2.
No more diving through your lock file to figure out which version you actually have.