Difference between pkg REPL and julia -e 'using Pkg; Pkg.[some command]'?

New to Julia
1

From what I understand, there are a couple of ways to install a package with Julia.

  1. the pkg REPL (julia, then the ] key, then add [SomePkg])
  2. `julia -e ‘using Pkg; Pkg.add(“[SomePkg]”)’

I’m working with a custom package for an academic course, and I’m getting some unexpected behavior.

When I use the REPL method (pkg> add https://github.com/zsunberg/DMUStudent.jl), everything works fine.

When I try julia -e 'using Pkg; Pkg.add(url="https://github.com/zsunberg/DMUStudent.jl", the process hangs prompting me for GitHub credentials. It then always fails even if I enter credentials.

Hoping this is a simple fix or maybe something I’m not grasping about the methods I’m using. Any help would be appreciated!

2

Hi, and welcome to the Julia community!

The julia -e method works for me without any issues on Linux (Julia 1.11.3) (on Windows I need to use julia -e "using Pkg; Pkg.add(url=\"https://github.com/zsunberg/DMUStudent.jl\")"). In particular I don’t get prompted for GitHub credentials.

Can you post some more information about your system (e.g. versioninfo())?

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3

It seems like you haven’t closed the parenthesis, try
julia -e 'using Pkg; Pkg.add(url="https://github.com/zsunberg/DMUStudent.jl")'

4

Ah, my bad – that was just a typo from the post. The command that fails matches your correction :slight_smile:

5

Hello and thank you!

$ julia --version
julia version 1.11.0-rc3

On my host system I use julia-bin from nixpkgs, installed on Fedora 41 via Home-Manager.

I realize that this isn’t a typical installation method, so I will typically use a container instead. The Dockerfile below replicates the error I’m trying to describe.

# current container has julia version 1.11.4
FROM docker.io/julia 
RUN julia -e 'import Pkg; Pkg.add(url="https://github.com/zsundberg/DMUStudent.jl")'

Short version of the error without the stacktrace:

$ podman build -t dmu:simple -f simple.Dockerfile                          [14:03:56]
STEP 1/2: FROM docker.io/julia
STEP 2/2: RUN julia -e 'import Pkg; Pkg.add(url="https://github.com/zsundberg/DMUStudent.jl")'
  Installing known registries into `~/.julia`
       Added `General` registry to ~/.julia/registries
     Cloning git-repo `https://github.com/zsundberg/DMUStudent.jl`
Username for 'https://github.com': ERROR: failed to clone from https://github.com/zsundberg/DMUStudent.jl, error: GitError(Code:EUSER, Class:Callback, Aborting, user cancelled credential request.)
6

I also experienced this error a week or two ago, but unfortunately I cannot remember what caused it. This also works fine for me and (like @eldee ) I also do not get prompted for Github credentials.

Do you have a startup.jl file? Have you set up any relevant environment variables? Are there any other packages in your Project.toml?

I noticed

this might have been the problem when I saw this error a few weeks ago.

7

A suggestion to get something that absolutely should work is to delete or rename your ~/.julia directory and then execute:

julia -e 'import Pkg; Pkg.add("Example")'

If this does not work, try installing julia with juliaup and repeat the above steps.

If it does work, try something closer to your original post and find out what exactly triggers the problem.

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