# Confusion with local packages

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/confusion-with-local-packages/33714>\
**Category:** General Usage\
**Created:** [January 23, 2020, 10:14pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/confusion-with-local-packages/33714 "2020-01-23T22:14:10Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![jebej](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/jebej/32/1784_2.png) [@jebej](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/jebej)\
**Post date:** [January 23, 2020, 10:14pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/confusion-with-local-packages/33714/1 "2020-01-23T22:14:10Z")

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Back in the 0.6 days, I used to `push!` to `LOAD_PATH` a directory containing all the packages I worked on. After updating to 1.0, I kept using the same strategy, which meant adding all the packages that my packages depended on to the default environment in order to be able to do `using MyPkg`.

How can I avoid this? I would like to be able to work on my packages without needing to have them in the `.julia` directory, but still be able to call them with `using MyPkg` from the default environment, without manually adding all the dependencies.

Is this possible? Is there a better way of doing things?

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**Author:** ![kristoffer.carlsson](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/kristoffer.carlsson/32/22_2.png) [@kristoffer.carlsson](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/kristoffer.carlsson)\
**Post date:** [January 23, 2020, 10:23pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/confusion-with-local-packages/33714/2 "2020-01-23T22:23:48Z")

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Yes, just use `dev /path/to/package` from the Pkg Repl. No need to mess with `LOAD_PATH`.

Or maybe that is what you mean with not adding them as dependencies?

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**Author:** ![jebej](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/jebej/32/1784_2.png) [@jebej](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/jebej)\
**Post date:** [January 23, 2020, 10:33pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/confusion-with-local-packages/33714/3 "2020-01-23T22:33:58Z")

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Thanks, that does seem to be doing what I want.

The only disadvantage seems to be that you would need to do this addition manually for all those local packages.

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**Author:** ![Tamas\_Papp](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/tamas_papp/32/25949_2.png) [@Tamas\_Papp](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Tamas_Papp)\
**Post date:** [January 24, 2020, 9:16am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/confusion-with-local-packages/33714/4 "2020-01-24T09:16:44Z")

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Unfortunately there is a lot of outdated advice on the net that involves `LOAD_PATH`. I think that we should put a warning about this in its docstring (“this is not something that one would normally touch”).

Even the [workflows](https://docs.julialang.org/en/v1.5-dev/manual/workflow-tips/#Revise-based-workflows-1) section (1/b) has some advice about `LOAD_PATH` manipulation. It _is_ a valid workflow, but I think it would be better if users just did not see any mention of `LOAD_PATH` for common use cases.