Multiple JULIA_PKGDIR directories in a hierarchy for supporting a shared environment

[David Parks]

I want to set up a specific Julia environment on a cluster for other people to use. I have particular packages, including some that are dev branches, and even some that draw from my own fork of a branch to support a custom feature for this environment. So the package setup is non trivial and I don't want everyone else to have to follow the details.

Is there a way (now or in the future) to have a hierarchy of package directories, so I could have a main repository that I setup and control for the relevant packages, but still allow users to extend on that but into their own package directory?

Or is there a way good way for me to auto-configure a complex package directory for the user? I suppose the obvious answer is to just write a package setup script, which might be a suitable solution. But I wonder if anything else is possible or on the horizon.

Thanks,

David

[Stefan Karpinski]

You can use LOAD_PATH to look in a stack of directories, and you can even set ENV["JULIA_PKGDIR"] to change which one Pkg manages, but you cannot manage more than one of them at the same time, since it's unclear what this would even do.

[Tom Breloff]

Well presumably it could do something that the import logic already does, but I appreciate that it is complex logic.

David: @wildart is the person to follow for the future of package management.

[Eric Forgy]

Hi David,

I'm not a pro, but I had similar issues and went with a main Julia package that contains many other Julia packages as Git submodules. In this way, my team can just clone the main Julia package and do a "git submodule init" and "git submodule update" and they get all the packages from the main Julia package. Then I added two lines to my .juliarc.jl file that add the Git submodule directory to my LOAD_PATH. Now my team can add any packages they like but are assured to have the same packages (and versions) for the main Julia package.

Best regards,

Eric