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‎_posts/2025-06-11-keeping-net-version-updated.md‎

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---
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layout: post
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title: "Script to keep .NET versions on my Mac updated"
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author: "Marcus Hammarberg"
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date: 2025-06-11 04:00:00
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tags:
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- .NET
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- Programming
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---
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On my Mac I was struggling to keep different version of .NET updated. I tried Homebrew (which is the Mac-way) but that gave me more problems. I remember reading a [Scott Hanselman post](https://www.hanselman.com/blog/side-by-side-user-scoped-net-core-installations-on-linux-with-dotnetinstallsh) on how to install .NET with a script. And that is [an official way to install .NET](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/core/install/macos#install-net-with-a-script).
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But I wanted to automate this to be run as part of my dotfiles installation. Let me describe what I did.
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<!-- excerpt-end -->
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## Augmenting script with parameters
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The script (`dotnet-install.sh`) takes a few parameters so that you can use different channels (like .NET 6, 8 and 9 for example) and architecture etc. I wanted to write a script that installs the latest supported for several channels. Which can be done with the following commands:
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```bash
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curl -sSL https://dot.net/v1/dotnet-install.sh | bash -s -- \
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--channel "6.0" \
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--install-dir "$HOME/.dotnet" \
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--arch "arm64" \
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> /dev/null
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curl -sSL https://dot.net/v1/dotnet-install.sh | bash -s -- \
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--channel "8.0" \
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--install-dir "$HOME/.dotnet" \
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--arch "arm64" \
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> /dev/null
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curl -sSL https://dot.net/v1/dotnet-install.sh | bash -s -- \
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--channel "9.0" \
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--install-dir "$HOME/.dotnet" \
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--arch "arm64" \
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> /dev/null
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```
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These commands will download the script and then execute it with `bash`. But that's a bit chatty, lets make it tighter with some variables:
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```bash
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#!/bin/bash
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INSTALL_DIR="$HOME/.dotnet"
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ARCH="arm64"
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SCRIPT_URL="https://dot.net/v1/dotnet-install.sh"
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CHANNELS=("6.0" "8.0" "9.0")
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for CHANNEL in "${CHANNELS[@]}"; do
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echo "⬇️ Installing $CHANNEL SDK ($LATEST_VERSION)..."
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curl -sSL "$SCRIPT_URL" | bash -s -- \
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--channel "$CHANNEL" \
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--install-dir "$INSTALL_DIR" \
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--arch "$ARCH" \
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> /dev/null
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done
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```
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In fact, let's create a function for the installation-part, which will make overall structure a bit more readable:
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```bash
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#!/bin/bash
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INSTALL_DIR="$HOME/.dotnet"
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ARCH="arm64"
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SCRIPT_URL="https://dot.net/v1/dotnet-install.sh"
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CHANNELS=("6.0" "8.0" "9.0")
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# Add to path for script execution
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export DOTNET_ROOT="$INSTALL_DIR"
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export PATH="$DOTNET_ROOT:$PATH"
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# Create install dir if needed
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mkdir -p "$INSTALL_DIR"
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# Function: install latest SDK from a channel
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install_dotnet_channel() {
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local CHANNEL=$1
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echo "⬇️ Installing $CHANNEL SDK ($LATEST_VERSION)..."
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curl -sSL "$SCRIPT_URL" | bash -s -- \
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--channel "$CHANNEL" \
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--install-dir "$INSTALL_DIR" \
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--arch "$ARCH" \
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> /dev/null
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xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine "$INSTALL_DIR"
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echo "✅ Installed new .NET $CHANNEL SDK ($LATEST_VERSION)."
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}
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# Main loop
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for CHANNEL in "${CHANNELS[@]}"; do
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install_dotnet_channel "$CHANNEL"
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done
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```
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After executing this you can run `dotnet --list-sdks` to and see the installed versions.
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## Removing old versions
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A good start, but this will flood my installation directory with all the minor and patch versions. I don't really care - I just want the latest version of each.
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Let's make the script do that. First we introduce a function to find the latest version to use for each channel. We can actually ask `dotnet-install.sh` to get to know that.
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```bash
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get_latest_version() {
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local CHANNEL=$1
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curl -sSL "$SCRIPT_URL" | bash -s -- --channel "$CHANNEL" --dry-run --install-dir "$INSTALL_DIR" --arch "$ARCH" 2>/dev/null | grep -oE '[0-9]+\.[0-9]+\.[0-9]+' | head -n 1
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}
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```
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Now we need to remove the version that is not the latest version. First - here's a function that removes all versions except the latest version:
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```bash
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remove_old_versions() {
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local VERSION=$1
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local MAJOR=$(echo "$VERSION" | cut -d. -f1)
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local KEEP_VERSION=$VERSION
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echo "🧹 Checking for SDKs with major version $MAJOR to clean up (except $KEEP_VERSION)..."
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for sdk in "$INSTALL_DIR/sdk"/*; do
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if [[ -d "$sdk" ]]; then
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sdk_version=$(basename "$sdk")
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sdk_major=$(echo "$sdk_version" | cut -d. -f1)
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if [[ "$sdk_major" == "$MAJOR" && "$sdk_version" != "$KEEP_VERSION" ]]; then
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echo "🗑 Removing $sdk_version"
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rm -rf "$sdk"
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fi
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fi
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done
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}
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```
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Bash is a bit weird to read, in that `local VERSION=$1` is the way to get the first parameter passed to the function. Like this `remove_old_versions "8.0.31"`.
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Now we can put that together, with the installation-section we had before. Let's put that in a function too:
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```bash
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install_dotnet_channel() {
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local CHANNEL=$1
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local LATEST_VERSION=$(get_latest_version "$CHANNEL")
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if [[ -z "$LATEST_VERSION" ]]; then
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echo "❌ Could not determine latest version for $CHANNEL"
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return
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fi
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if [[ ! -d "$INSTALL_DIR/sdk/$LATEST_VERSION" ]]; then
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remove_old_versions "$LATEST_VERSION"
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echo "⬇️ Installing $CHANNEL SDK ($LATEST_VERSION)..."
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curl -sSL "$SCRIPT_URL" | bash -s -- \
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--channel "$CHANNEL" \
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--install-dir "$INSTALL_DIR" \
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--arch "$ARCH" \
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> /dev/null
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xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine "$INSTALL_DIR"
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echo "✅ Installed new .NET $CHANNEL SDK ($LATEST_VERSION)."
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fi
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}
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```
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This function will be called like this `install_dotnet_channel "$CHANNEL"` and do the following:
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1. First get the latest version for `$CHANNEL`
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1. `if [[ ! -d "$INSTALL_DIR/sdk/$LATEST_VERSION" ]]; then` checks if the latest version is *not* installed.
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1. In that case - we remove all versions that is not `$LATEST_VERSION`
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1. And then install the $CHANNEL latests version, as before.
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And with that our script is done:
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```bash
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#!/bin/bash
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INSTALL_DIR="$HOME/.dotnet"
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ARCH="arm64"
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SCRIPT_URL="https://dot.net/v1/dotnet-install.sh"
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CHANNELS=("6.0" "8.0" "9.0")
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# Add to path for script execution
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export DOTNET_ROOT="$INSTALL_DIR"
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export PATH="$DOTNET_ROOT:$PATH"
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# Create install dir if needed
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mkdir -p "$INSTALL_DIR"
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# Function: get latest version from a channel using dry-run
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get_latest_version() {
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local CHANNEL=$1
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curl -sSL "$SCRIPT_URL" | bash -s -- --channel "$CHANNEL" --dry-run --install-dir "$INSTALL_DIR" --arch "$ARCH" 2>/dev/null | grep -oE '[0-9]+\.[0-9]+\.[0-9]+' | head -n 1
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}
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# Function: remove older SDKs from same major version
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remove_old_versions() {
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local VERSION=$1
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local MAJOR=$(echo "$VERSION" | cut -d. -f1)
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local KEEP_VERSION=$VERSION
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echo "🧹 Checking for SDKs with major version $MAJOR to clean up (except $KEEP_VERSION)..."
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for sdk in "$INSTALL_DIR/sdk"/*; do
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if [[ -d "$sdk" ]]; then
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sdk_version=$(basename "$sdk")
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sdk_major=$(echo "$sdk_version" | cut -d. -f1)
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if [[ "$sdk_major" == "$MAJOR" && "$sdk_version" != "$KEEP_VERSION" ]]; then
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echo "🗑 Removing $sdk_version"
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rm -rf "$sdk"
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fi
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fi
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done
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}
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# Function: install latest SDK from a channel
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install_dotnet_channel() {
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local CHANNEL=$1
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local LATEST_VERSION=$(get_latest_version "$CHANNEL")
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if [[ -z "$LATEST_VERSION" ]]; then
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echo "❌ Could not determine latest version for $CHANNEL"
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return
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fi
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if [[ ! -d "$INSTALL_DIR/sdk/$LATEST_VERSION" ]]; then
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remove_old_versions "$LATEST_VERSION"
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echo "⬇️ Installing $CHANNEL SDK ($LATEST_VERSION)..."
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curl -sSL "$SCRIPT_URL" | bash -s -- \
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--channel "$CHANNEL" \
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--install-dir "$INSTALL_DIR" \
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--arch "$ARCH" \
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> /dev/null
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xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine "$INSTALL_DIR"
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echo "✅ Installed new .NET $CHANNEL SDK ($LATEST_VERSION)."
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fi
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}
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# Main loop
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for CHANNEL in "${CHANNELS[@]}"; do
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install_dotnet_channel "$CHANNEL"
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done
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```
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## Using as part of my dotfiles
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I have all my Mac configuration in a [dotfiles](https://github.com/marcusoftnet/dotfiles) directory. I've based that repository from others [developers greater than me](https://github.com/holman/dotfiles). And for that I'm grateful, because it gave me some tools and conventions that makes it very easy to keep my computer up-date.
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After cloning the repository it will be initially setup using the [`bootstrap`](https://github.com/marcusoftnet/dotfiles/blob/master/script/bootstrap) script. After that all configuration will reside in and be dynamically linked to `~/.dotfiles`
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One command that gets created is `dot` which will automatically go through all your sub-folders in `~/.dotfiles` and run commands like `install.sh`.
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That's a good spot to put our script. I created a `/dotnet/install.sh` script and put the script from above, in there. That means that it will automatically check for new .NET versions every time I run `dot` at the command line.
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Pretty neat!

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