Adding special labels for the NXF_VER env variable

[abhi18av]

Hi team,

I was wondering whether we could simplify the process of helping users to test their code against the latest stable and edge version.

The proposal is to add two special labels stable and edge which would automatically resolve to the latest stable and edge release from Github.

For example,

NXF_VER=edge nextflow run nextflow-io/hello

I think that this could be an additive change, which retains the current ability to specify the exact version which the user would like to use.

[abhi18av]

I guess, this might be an alternative for the suggested feature.

export NXF_EDGE=1
curl get.nextflow.io | bash

[drpatelh]

I think something like this would be really useful given that pipelines may have to rely on edge releases more. Would be much easier to document too and would bypass the need to find and export the exact release version manually.

[pditommaso]

Having NXF_EDGE=1 you can use the usual nextflow self-update command to update it.

[abhi18av]

One possible use-case which comes to mind is if the user would like to have both the stable as well as the edge version?

As of now, I think, there are two ways to use the edge release

1. Download from Github releases and save it along side the stable release
2. Use the NXF_EDGE=1 release, this would overwrite the current NF binary

[drpatelh]

Does NXF_EDGE exist already? For me, NXF_VER=edge would be more intuitive or maybe NXF_VER_EDGE because it's more explicit about the Nextflow version.

[pditommaso]

umm maybe already works like that .. don't remember 😆

nextflow/nextflow

Line 226 in 8f274c9

[[ -z $NXF_EDGE && $NXF_VER = *-edge ]] && NXF_EDGE=1