How to switch to an older version of vcftools

Question

[dpr331]

Hi I recently updated to the latest version of vcftools (v0.1.15) and it stopped working with my data I was wondering how I would go about reverting to an older version of the program?

[h.mon]

Solution 0: read "How To Ask Good Questions On Technical And Scientific Forums"

Solution 1 (assuming Ubuntu): uninstall vcftools, install the older package, and pin it to prevent it from being updated. Search for "apt-get pinning" and "apt-get install older packages".

Solution 2: download the latest source tarball that worked for you, compile and install locally (~/bin/vcftools-0.1.1X), and add this folder to the beginning of the PATH (export PATH=~/bin/vcftools-0.1.1X/bin:$PATH).

Solution 3: get a small example of non-working file and open an issue on vcftools source repo.

[Ram]

I'm assuming you're using a *nix operating system. If this is the case, "installation" does not work the way it does on Windows. When you run a command, the OS checks directories in the $PATH variable for an executable file that matches the name you provided, and it picks the first such executable.

All you need to do is extract the required version of vcftools to an appropriate directory, then prepend that directory's absolute path to the $PATH variable. That way, when you run vcftools, it will pick the older version of vcftools.