Flutter - How to switch flutter channel without downloading flutter & dart sdk every time

Question

Currently i was trying on flutter web for which i needed to work on flutter master channel. But, then i needed to work on my other projects. On them i am working on flutter stable channel.

But, every time i switch my flutter channel using the command "flutter channel stable" or "flutter channel master", It keeps re-downloading sdk and other tools every time.

Currently, i have downloaded stable flutter sdk and stable dart sdk.

I have moved them in a "FlutterSDK" folder with two other folders "stable" & "master" in it. Both folders contains the stable flutter & dart sdk.

But, it keeps re-downloading the resources. What am i doing wrong ?

Can anyone help with this?

Thanks.

Answer 1

Solution for Linux(possibly MacOS)

1. Download pure flutter
2. Unzip it.
3. Change the name to "flutter-stable"
4. Make a copy of this folder.
5. Change the name of the copy to "flutter-web" (for example).
6. Open the .bashrc file in your home folder.
7. Add two lines at the end: alias flutter = "{your directory path}/flutter-stable/flutter" alias flutter-web = "{your path to folder}/flutter-web/flutter"
8. Restart the computer (or log out and log back in).
9. Enter in the terminal "flutter doctor -v" and "flutter-web doctor -v" (to download the necessary files)
10. Enter "flutter-web channel" in the terminal to find out the current branch (marked with a star)
11. In order to change the branch, enter the "flutter-web channel master" in the terminal (instead of the master, you can choose any other)
12. Enter "flutter-web upgrade" in the terminal to update the branch.

Done. If you need a stable version, then use flutter (flutter pub get), if for the web, then flutter-web (flutter-web pub get)

Ps if you already have a stable version, then:

• skip point 3 and 4. (you don't need to make copies, just download a clean flutter sdk, unpack, rename it, and put it next to the existing one)
• remove the path to the flutter sdk from the environment so that there is no name conflict (requires a reboot)

Answer 2

You may have a look on Flutter FVM. This tool allows you to manage multiple channels and releases, and caches these versions locally, so you don't have to wait for a full setup every time you want to switch versions.