# Dependency only for testing

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/dependency-only-for-testing/863>\
**Category:** General Usage\
**Tags:** question\
**Created:** [December 11, 2016, 3:58pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/dependency-only-for-testing/863 "2016-12-11T15:58:19Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

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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:** [December 11, 2016, 3:58pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/dependency-only-for-testing/863/1 "2016-12-11T15:58:19Z")

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If a packages is only needed for testing (eg loaded by `runtests.jl`), but not for the package functionality _per se_, should I include it in `REQUIRE`?

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**Author:** ![yuyichao](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/yuyichao/32/20_2.png) [@yuyichao](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/yuyichao)\
**Post date:** [December 11, 2016, 4:03pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/dependency-only-for-testing/863/2 "2016-12-11T16:03:32Z")

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There’s `test/REQUIRE`

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**Author:** ![ChrisRackauckas](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/chrisrackauckas/32/77_2.png) [@ChrisRackauckas](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/ChrisRackauckas)\
**Post date:** [December 11, 2016, 5:59pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/dependency-only-for-testing/863/3 "2016-12-11T17:59:04Z")

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To be fair, I don’t think `test/REQUIRE` is in the documentation page here:

[http://docs.julialang.org/en/release-0.5/manual/packages/](http://docs.julialang.org/en/release-0.5/manual/packages/)

(unless I just didn’t see it). I only knew to do it because… I don’t really know. It may be good to mention it.

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**Author:** ![kslimes](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/kslimes/32/44413_2.png) [@kslimes](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/kslimes)\
**Post date:** [December 11, 2016, 7:42pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/dependency-only-for-testing/863/4 "2016-12-11T19:42:50Z")

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Want to open a PR? I agree that this would be useful for many people.

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**Author:** ![ChrisRackauckas](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/chrisrackauckas/32/77_2.png) [@ChrisRackauckas](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/ChrisRackauckas)\
**Post date:** [December 12, 2016, 2:30am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/dependency-only-for-testing/863/5 "2016-12-12T02:30:18Z")

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Sure, if no one posts a link to the PR I’ll open one when I get to it. There are a few other PRs I got to make first.

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**Author:** ![ChrisRackauckas](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/chrisrackauckas/32/77_2.png) [@ChrisRackauckas](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/ChrisRackauckas)\
**Post date:** [December 14, 2016, 5:54am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/dependency-only-for-testing/863/6 "2016-12-14T05:54:11Z")

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Started the PR:

[https://github.com/JuliaLang/julia/pull/19593](https://github.com/JuliaLang/julia/pull/19593)

Further discussion should continue there. Thanks @Tamas_Papp for mentioning this!

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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:** [December 14, 2016, 6:49am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/dependency-only-for-testing/863/7 "2016-12-14T06:49:31Z")

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@ChrisRackauckas: nice of you to submit a patch. I opened an issue to create an empty `test/REQUIRE` file in `PkgDev.generate`.  
[https://github.com/JuliaLang/PkgDev.jl/issues/90](https://github.com/JuliaLang/PkgDev.jl/issues/90)