]dev a standard library package

[gasagna]

I want to make some changes to my local install of SuiteSparse.jl and in the REPL I do

]dev SuiteSparse

This create an image of the source code in ~/julia/dev/SuiteSparse that I can play with.

However, importing the module with using SuiteSparse and then checking pathof(SuiteSparse) does not load the this modified code but loads the version that comes with the julia source install in $JULIA_INSTALL_PREFIX/usr/share/julia/stdlib/v1.1/SuiteSparse/src/SuiteSparse.jl.

Is there a catch with ]dev-ing stdlib packages?

[Tamas_Papp]

This should work. But if you loaded SuiteSparse before pkg> dev’ing it, you have to restart Julia.

[kristoffer.carlsson]

It would be nice if this just worked but it doesn’t. dev should probably error on stdlibs.

The reason it doesn’t work is the the stdlib is in the sysimg and when julia loads a package it checks if a package with that Uuid is already loaded. In that case it just uses the already loaded one.

A workaround is to include the main package file (e.g LibGit2.jl).

[carstenbauer]

Another way is

Testing changes to stdlib without remaking the whole of Julia

If you have the Random stdlib at some other folder you can change its uuid, pkg> develop path/to/Random and then using Random will use that version. This also works with Revise.