name: kotlin-tooling-immutable-collections-0-5-x-migration description: > Migrate Kotlin (and Java) code from kotlinx.collections.immutable 0.3.x / 0.4.x to the latest 0.5.x. The 0.5.x line renames every copy-returning method on PersistentList / PersistentMap / PersistentSet / PersistentCollection to a participial form per KEEP-0459 (add→adding, removeAt→removingAt, set→replacingAt, put→putting, clear→cleared, …) and deprecates the old names (WARNING, with ReplaceWith). Driven by the compiler: bump the version, recompile, and apply the rename each deprecation warning names. Use when the user mentions kotlinx.collections.immutable 0.5.x, PersistentList migration, "Use adding() instead", KEEP-0459, or sees deprecation warnings from kotlinx.collections.immutable. license: Apache-2.0 metadata: author: JetBrains version: "2.4.0"
kotlinx.collections.immutable 0.5.x Migration
The 0.5.x line renames every copy-returning method on the persistent collections to a
participial form (per KEEP-0459) and deprecates the old names at WARNING level with a
ReplaceWith hint. Migrating is a mechanical, binary-compatible, semantics-preserving
call-site rename — same parameters, order, and return type; only the name changes.
Drive it from the compiler: bump the version, recompile, and fix each deprecation warning —
the warning names the replacement. Source of truth: 0.5.0-MIGRATION.md.
When it applies
Check the version the project currently uses:
- 0.3.x or 0.4.x (any pre-0.5.0) → run the migration below.
- On 0.5.x but not the latest → set the version to the latest 0.5.x and stop. All 0.5.x releases share the same renames, so a within-line bump adds no new deprecations and needs no recompile.
- On the latest 0.5.x, or on 0.6.x and later → nothing to do.
Migration
1. Find the build command
Check README.md, CLAUDE.md, or AGENTS.md for how the project builds; if it isn't
written down, infer it from the build files — Gradle (./gradlew), Maven (mvn, or the
./mvnw wrapper), Bazel
(a bazel wrapper), or a custom script. Record the compile command (and the test command).
In a multi-module project you only need the modules that use the library, plus any you
change — not a whole-repo build.
2. Baseline compile
Compile on the current version and confirm it's green. If it doesn't build now, you can't tell post-migration errors from pre-existing ones — get a working compile command first.
3. Bump to the latest 0.5.x
Find where the version is pinned — grep -rn kotlinx-collections-immutable across the build
files finds it (version catalog, build script, gradle.properties, pom.xml, …) — and set
it to the latest 0.5.x on Maven Central (a -beta is fine). If the build pins artifact
hashes (e.g. gradle/verification-metadata.xml), update those too — the cheapest fix is to
copy the new artifact's checksum straight from the dependency-verification failure message
and add just that one entry, rather than regenerating the whole metadata file. The bump is
binary-compatible; old code keeps compiling with warnings. (If the dependency fails to
resolve with a Kotlin metadata-version error, the project's Kotlin is too old for the 0.5.x
artifact — bump Kotlin first.)
4. Recompile and fix the warnings
Recompile. Each renamed method carries @Deprecated(WARNING, ReplaceWith(...)), so the
compiler emits one warning per call site naming the replacement (e.g. "Use removingAll()
instead"). Apply that rename. Repeat compile → fix until no kotlinx.collections.immutable
deprecation warnings remain. (For multiplatform, one target compile surfaces the shared call
sites. Pre-existing factory deprecations such as immutableListOf → persistentListOf
appear the same way — apply those too.) A recompile that fails right after the bump is
failing on these deprecations (plus, if hashes are pinned, a one-time dependency-verification
error) — keep applying the renames the warnings name; don't re-run dependency-resolution or
metadata-regeneration commands to try to clear it.
Trust the compiler — never find/replace by name. The same method names exist on
MutableList / MutableMap / MutableSet and on the .Builder types, which mutate in
place and are not deprecated. Only the sites the compiler flags (receiver statically
Persistent*) get renamed; if it didn't flag it, leave it.
An Unresolved reference after a rename means the participial name isn't on that
receiver — you've split a rename. A rename only compiles if the declaration and every
call site move together. The library already did that for the kotlinx types, so renaming
their call sites just works — but it doesn't hold for anything else that merely shares the
names. When a renamed call won't resolve, there are two cases:
- The receiver is unrelated to this library (a
Mutable*, a.Builder, a same-named method on some other type) — the rename was wrong; revert that site. - The receiver is a project type the codebase is itself migrating — it implements a
Persistent*, or it's the project's own wrapper whose methods echo these names and get renamed to match. The rename is right but half-done: rename the declaration and its other callers too, so the call resolves. (Deprecated overrides on an implementer are step 5.)
Decide by the receiver's declared type, never the method name — a Persistent*-named
field may hold another type. This matters most when you can't lean on a fast recompile and
are renaming from reading the source.
Java callers. The recompile flags them only if the build reports javac deprecation
warnings (-Xlint:deprecation, usually off). If it doesn't, grep the .java files that
import the library for the old names and rename the calls whose receiver is a Persistent*
type.
After the renames, the compiler may report some @Suppress("DEPRECATION") as having no
effect — remove those (re-read the region first, in case it still covers something else).
5. Custom implementers
If the project has classes that implement PersistentList / PersistentMap /
PersistentSet / PersistentCollection, their deprecated overrides need migrating too.
Find them:
grep -rnE --include='*.kt' \
'(class|object|interface)\s+\w[^:]*:\s*[^{]*\b(PersistentList|PersistentMap|PersistentSet|PersistentCollection)\s*<' .
On Windows PowerShell, Select-String is the grep equivalent:
Get-ChildItem -Recurse -Filter *.kt |
Select-String '(class|object|interface)\s+\w[^:]*:\s*[^{]*\b(PersistentList|PersistentMap|PersistentSet|PersistentCollection)\s*<'
(Confirm a match really lists the interface as a supertype, not just a field type or type argument.) For each, move the implementation into the new participial method and have the deprecated override delegate to it:
override fun adding(element: E): MyList<E> = /* real implementation */
@Suppress("OVERRIDE_DEPRECATION")
override fun add(element: E): MyList<E> = adding(element)
If the participial methods call each other, route those calls through participial siblings,
not the deprecated names. (Add "DEPRECATION" to the suppress only when an override body
itself still calls a deprecated member.) Doing this now matters: at 0.6.0 the old names
become compile errors, and at 0.7.0 they are removed. See 0.5.0-MIGRATION.md for the
upstream implementer guidance.
6. Run any documented follow-up steps
Do this after the renames compile clean, so that if you run low on time the call-site work
is already done. Some projects document steps to run after a dependency change that the
compiler won't surface — most commonly regenerating dependency-verification metadata (the
gradle/verification-metadata.xml hashes from step 3). Usually the single-entry fix from
step 3 is all you need; only fall back to the project's documented full-regeneration procedure
(in README.md / CONTRIBUTING.md / CLAUDE.md / AGENTS.md) if that one entry isn't
enough. Run it once — a full --write-verification-metadata / "resolve all dependencies"
pass re-resolves the entire graph and is slow, and repeating it rarely changes the outcome.
Then re-confirm the build is clean.
Rename reference
PersistentCollection—add→adding,addAll→addingAll,remove→removing,removeAll→removingAll,retainAll→retainingAll,clear→clearedPersistentList(the above, plus) —add(i, e)→addingAt,addAll(i, c)→addingAllAt,set(i, e)→replacingAt,removeAt→removingAtPersistentMap—put→putting,putAll→puttingAll,remove(k)→removing,remove(k, v)→removing,clear→cleared
Builders (PersistentList.Builder, etc.) are not renamed — they mutate in place, so
their imperative names stay.
Links
0.5.0-MIGRATION.md— upstream guide (source of truth, incl. implementer details)- KEEP-0459 — naming rationale