Updating Nextflow

This page describes Nextflow release cadence, how to self-update Nextflow, and how 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.

You can find an exhaustive list of releases and updates in the Nextflow changelog.

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 you self-update Nextflow:

NXF_EDGE=1 nextflow self-update

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.

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.