# Backing up or Syncing the artifact directory

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/backing-up-or-syncing-the-artifact-directory/64457>\
**Category:** Internals & Design\
**Created:** [July 11, 2021, 10:20am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/backing-up-or-syncing-the-artifact-directory/64457 "2021-07-11T10:20:48Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![mbee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/50afbb/32.png) [@mbee](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/mbee)\
**Post date:** [July 11, 2021, 10:20am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/backing-up-or-syncing-the-artifact-directory/64457/1 "2021-07-11T10:20:48Z")

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From a use case point of view this is a beginner question, but I think it is better answered here:

I have a portable Windows ‘installation’ of Julia at v:/bin/julia, including v:/bin/julia/.julia/artifacts. I am synchronizing all my portable stuff inside v:/bin simply by a robocopy job. Problem with julia is, the artifact dir has grown now to 17GB in size. Question is, can I exclude the directory and continue the sync/backup by copying only the remaining part? Is the ‘target’ installation after such an update able to detect its own - now possibly outdated - artifacts and maintaining them automatically (\*), bringing them up to date? As a particular sub-question: Do I have to expect further growing of this directory, caused by undetected abandoned packages, or better, their uniquely hashed incarnations?

(\*) I don’t mind about a required " ] update "

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**Author:** ![rikh](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/rikh/32/204104_2.png) [@rikh](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/rikh)\
**Post date:** [July 13, 2021, 5:41am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/backing-up-or-syncing-the-artifact-directory/64457/2 "2021-07-13T05:41:16Z")

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> [@mbee](#):
>
> Is the ‘target’ installation after such an update able to detect its own - now possibly outdated - artifacts and maintaining them automatically

This should be completely fine

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**Author:** ![rikh](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/rikh/32/204104_2.png) [@rikh](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/rikh)\
**Post date:** [July 13, 2021, 5:42am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/backing-up-or-syncing-the-artifact-directory/64457/3 "2021-07-13T05:42:06Z")

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> [@mbee](#):
>
> Do I have to expect further growing of this directory, caused by undetected abandoned packages, or better, their uniquely hashed incarnations?

Will you be installing more packages or updating them?

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**Author:** ![mbee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/50afbb/32.png) [@mbee](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/mbee)\
**Post date:** [July 13, 2021, 7:05pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/backing-up-or-syncing-the-artifact-directory/64457/4 "2021-07-13T19:05:16Z")

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Addition or removal of packages always happens within the ‘source’ installation. These changes will then become subject to the next sync (happens about once every two weeks or monthly in my case).

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**Author:** ![StefanKarpinski](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/stefankarpinski/32/24_2.png) [@StefanKarpinski](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/StefanKarpinski)\
**Post date:** [July 13, 2021, 10:21pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/backing-up-or-syncing-the-artifact-directory/64457/5 "2021-07-13T22:21:52Z")

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Artifacts are by design content-addressed and immutable and if you got them via the public package infrastructure, then they are permanently stored, so they should be reinstallable forever. So in short, yes, these are quite safe to not backup.