Deduplicate Installed Versions

ZVM v0.9.4 can replace identical files across Zig installations with hard links into ~/.zvm/store (or $ZVM_PATH/store).

zvm dedupe                  # all installed versions
zvm dedupe 0.15.1 0.15.2    # selected versions
zvm dedupe .15              # shorthand is accepted, as are custom aliases

Files are shared only when their content, permissions, and owner match. Symlinks and linked local builds are left alone, and files that cannot be hard-linked are skipped. The command is safe to repeat or interrupt and reports the space reclaimed.

Deduplicate future installs

Automatic deduplication defaults to off. Enable or disable it with:

zvm dedupe --auto on
zvm dedupe --auto off

--auto saves the preference and exits. Enabling it does not process existing installations; run zvm dedupe once for those. Disabling it leaves existing hard links in place. You can also read or change the preference with zvm settings .autoDedupe.

Shared files and cleanup

Editing a shared file in place changes it in every installation that shares it. If you patch Zig’s standard library, keep that installation out of deduplication. To restore separate files, disable automatic deduplication and reinstall the version with zvm install --force <version>.

zvm uninstall and zvm clean remove store files no installation references. To measure total disk usage without counting hard links repeatedly, run one du -sh ~/.zvm over the whole directory.