Is there a way to define the required sbt version in build.sbt?

Question

In the build.sbt definition of a Scala project, is it possible to define the minimum version of sbt that is required to build the project?

Accepted Answer

`project/build.properties` allows you to force sbt to use particular version. If current version of installed sbt is different - sbt itself will download (if needed) the version you've specified there:

```
sbt.version=0.12.0
```

See, Hello for instance. So actually you may have installed several versions of sbt in your system - it's just jars, that placed in `.sbt/boot/scala-{scala.version required by this sbt}/org.scala-sbt/sbt/{sbt.version}` folder. Sbt executable actually looks for version specified in `project/build.properties` or (if it's not specified) highest version installed in the system.

P.S. From `sbt-launcher` perspective, sbt is only one dependency with small non-intersecting others like `ansi.jar`, so specifying the range of versions like `[0.13.1, 0.13.8]` have no much sense as it would be efective only for conflicting transitive deps. Otherwise it's enough to specify higher possible version (which would compile) - you may even choose some version that you already have (and update project's sbt that way).

Is there a way to define the required sbt version in build.sbt?

Solution

Problem