# How to downgrade cmake / manage versions

**URL:** https://discourse.cmake.org/t/how-to-downgrade-cmake-manage-versions/8520
**Category:** Usage
**Tags:** os:linux
**Created:** [July 14, 2023, 4:16pm UTC](https://discourse.cmake.org/t/how-to-downgrade-cmake-manage-versions/8520 "2023-07-14T16:16:05Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![bdunbar](https://discourse.cmake.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/a3d4f5/32.png) [@bdunbar](https://discourse.cmake.org/u/bdunbar)
#### Post date: [July 14, 2023, 4:16pm UTC](https://discourse.cmake.org/t/how-to-downgrade-cmake-manage-versions/8520/1 "2023-07-14T16:16:06Z")

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Newb questions [1]

- How do I remove cmake version x and downgrade to version y?

- How to manage cmake versions on different linux distributions?

1. I installed the latest version of cmake - 3.27.0-rc4 [2]. I’d like to go back a few versions and install an earlier version. It is as simple as repeating the install with 3.17.x? Or will that break things.

2. We have a mix of developer workstations (redhat and ubuntu). They come with different cmake versions. For complicated reasons I was asked to standardize on ‘the’ version currently used by our runners, and that version is not available in the distro’s repository.

3. I don’t mind telling them ‘download and compile’ [2] but if there is a utility that allows one to hop between versions, that would be slick.

[1] Long time sysadmin, first time having to worry about specific versions of cmake.

[2] process

- download from [https://cmake.org/download/](https://cmake.org/download/),
- ./bootstrap
- make
- make install

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### Author: ![neundorf](https://discourse.cmake.org/user_avatar/discourse.cmake.org/neundorf/32/2075_2.png) [@neundorf](https://discourse.cmake.org/u/neundorf)
#### Post date: [July 14, 2023, 8:37pm UTC](https://discourse.cmake.org/t/how-to-downgrade-cmake-manage-versions/8520/2 "2023-07-14T20:37:37Z")

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You can simply download all the versions you want from the cmake download page and unpack them all into /opt/, they don’t interfere with each other.  
To run them, you either set the PATH to one of them or call it explicitely with the full path.

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### Author: ![bdunbar](https://discourse.cmake.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/a3d4f5/32.png) [@bdunbar](https://discourse.cmake.org/u/bdunbar)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2023, 1:26am UTC](https://discourse.cmake.org/t/how-to-downgrade-cmake-manage-versions/8520/3 "2023-07-15T01:26:47Z")

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It never occurred to me to ‘just download and run’ - thanks!