# Failing precompilation for DecisionTree

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/failing-precompilation-for-decisiontree/100822>\
**Category:** Package Management\
**Created:** [June 26, 2023, 12:08am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/failing-precompilation-for-decisiontree/100822 "2023-06-26T00:08:44Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![alexdmeyer](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/alexdmeyer/32/29605_2.png) [@alexdmeyer](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/alexdmeyer)\
**Post date:** [June 26, 2023, 12:08am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/failing-precompilation-for-decisiontree/100822/1 "2023-06-26T00:08:44Z")

</div>

Hey Julia community,

For the past few months, the command `using DecisionTree` (as well as `using MLJDecisionTreeInterface`) has been met with the error message below on my machine. These packages previously worked fine for me—I have no idea what changed. I suspect I’m missing something basic about how packages are managed.

I’d be grateful for any advice! I’m also including the outputs from `versioninfo()` and `]st` below. Please let me know if I should include anything else, or if I ought to post this under a different topic.

Thanks,

ADM

Error message:

```julia
julia> using DecisionTree
[Info: Precompiling DecisionTree [7806a523-6efd-50cb-b5f6-3fa6f1930dbb]
ERROR: LoadError: UndefVarError: `AbstractNode` not defined
Stacktrace:
 [1] getproperty(x::Module, f::Symbol)
   @ Base ./Base.jl:31
 [2] top-level scope
   @ ~/.julia/packages/DecisionTree/4lZKc/src/abstract_trees.jl:18
 [3] include(mod::Module, _path::String)
   @ Base ./Base.jl:457
 [4] include(x::String)
   @ DecisionTree ~/.julia/packages/DecisionTree/4lZKc/src/DecisionTree.jl:1
 [5] top-level scope
   @ ~/.julia/packages/DecisionTree/4lZKc/src/DecisionTree.jl:84
 [6] include
   @ ./Base.jl:457 [inlined]
 [7] include_package_for_output(pkg::Base.PkgId, input::String, depot_path::Vector{String}, dl_load_path::Vector{String}, load_path::Vector{String}, concrete_deps::Vector{Pair{Base.PkgId, UInt128}}, source::Nothing)
   @ Base ./loading.jl:2010
 [8] top-level scope
   @ stdin:2
in expression starting at /Users/alexandermeyer/.julia/packages/DecisionTree/4lZKc/src/abstract_trees.jl:18
in expression starting at /Users/alexandermeyer/.julia/packages/DecisionTree/4lZKc/src/DecisionTree.jl:1
in expression starting at stdin:2
ERROR: Failed to precompile DecisionTree [7806a523-6efd-50cb-b5f6-3fa6f1930dbb] to "/Users/alexandermeyer/.julia/compiled/v1.9/DecisionTree/jl_TjLSb7".
Stacktrace:
  [1] error(s::String)
    @ Base ./error.jl:35
  [2] compilecache(pkg::Base.PkgId, path::String, internal_stderr::IO, internal_stdout::IO, keep_loaded_modules::Bool)
    @ Base ./loading.jl:2260
  [3] compilecache
    @ ./loading.jl:2127 [inlined]
  [4] _require(pkg::Base.PkgId, env::String)
    @ Base ./loading.jl:1770
  [5] _require_prelocked(uuidkey::Base.PkgId, env::String)
    @ Base ./loading.jl:1625
  [6] macro expansion
    @ ./loading.jl:1613 [inlined]
  [7] macro expansion
    @ ./lock.jl:267 [inlined]
  [8] require(into::Module, mod::Symbol)
    @ Base ./loading.jl:1576
  [9] eval
    @ ./boot.jl:370 [inlined]
 [10] eval
    @ ./Base.jl:68 [inlined]
 [11] repleval(m::Module, code::Expr, #unused#::String)
    @ VSCodeServer ~/.vscode/extensions/julialang.language-julia-1.47.2/scripts/packages/VSCodeServer/src/repl.jl:222
 [12] (::VSCodeServer.var"#107#109"{Module, Expr, REPL.LineEditREPL, REPL.LineEdit.Prompt})()
    @ VSCodeServer ~/.vscode/extensions/julialang.language-julia-1.47.2/scripts/packages/VSCodeServer/src/repl.jl:186
 [13] with_logstate(f::Function, logstate::Any)
    @ Base.CoreLogging ./logging.jl:514
 [14] with_logger
    @ ./logging.jl:626 [inlined]
 [15] (::VSCodeServer.var"#106#108"{Module, Expr, REPL.LineEditREPL, REPL.LineEdit.Prompt})()
    @ VSCodeServer ~/.vscode/extensions/julialang.language-julia-1.47.2/scripts/packages/VSCodeServer/src/repl.jl:187
 [16] #invokelatest#2
    @ ./essentials.jl:816 [inlined]
 [17] invokelatest(::Any)
    @ Base ./essentials.jl:813
 [18] macro expansion
    @ ~/.vscode/extensions/julialang.language-julia-1.47.2/scripts/packages/VSCodeServer/src/eval.jl:34 [inlined]
 [19] (::VSCodeServer.var"#61#62")()
    @ VSCodeServer ./task.jl:514

```

Output of `versioninfo()`:

```julia
Julia Version 1.9.0
Commit 8e630552924 (2023-05-07 11:25 UTC)
Platform Info:
  OS: macOS (x86_64-apple-darwin22.4.0)
  CPU: 12 × Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-9750H CPU @ 2.60GHz
  WORD_SIZE: 64
  LIBM: libopenlibm
  LLVM: libLLVM-14.0.6 (ORCJIT, skylake)
  Threads: 6 on 12 virtual cores
Environment:
  JULIA_EDITOR = 
  JULIA_NUM_THREADS = 6
  JULIA_IMAGE_THREADS = 1

```

Output of `]st`:

```julia
⌃ [cbdf2221] AlgebraOfGraphics v0.6.7
⌃ [131c737c] ArviZ v0.5.22
  [c52e3926] Atom v0.12.38
  [6e4b80f9] BenchmarkTools v1.3.2
⌃ [024491cd] BetaML v0.7.0
  [e2ed5e7c] Bijections v0.1.4
  [336ed68f] CSV v0.10.11
⌃ [13f3f980] CairoMakie v0.8.9
  [aaaa29a8] Clustering v0.15.3
  [35d6a980] ColorSchemes v3.21.0
  [861a8166] Combinatorics v1.0.2
⌅ [34da2185] Compat v3.46.2
  [7d11a335] ConcaveHull v1.1.0
⌃ [ae264745] Copulas v0.1.0
⌃ [a93c6f00] DataFrames v1.3.6
  [864edb3b] DataStructures v0.18.13
⌃ [7806a523] DecisionTree v0.12.1
⌃ [0c46a032] DifferentialEquations v6.20.0
  [b4f34e82] Distances v0.10.8
⌃ [31c24e10] Distributions v0.25.96
  [f6006082] EvoTrees v0.14.11
  [2fe49d83] Expectations v1.9.0
  [7a1cc6ca] FFTW v1.7.1
  [587475ba] Flux v0.13.17
  [d9f16b24] Functors v0.4.4
  [38e38edf] GLM v1.8.3
  [5752ebe1] GMT v1.1.1
  [c91e804a] Gadfly v1.4.0
⌃ [2fb1d81b] GeoArrays v0.7.5
  [9b6fcbb8] GeoData v0.6.1
  [7073ff75] IJulia v1.24.2
  [a98d9a8b] Interpolations v0.14.7
  [033835bb] JLD2 v0.4.31
  [682c06a0] JSON v0.21.4
  [e5e0dc1b] Juno v0.8.4
  [5ab0869b] KernelDensity v0.6.7
  [b1bec4e5] LIBSVM v0.8.0
  [a5e1c1ea] LatinHypercubeSampling v1.9.0
  [92481ed7] LinearRegression v0.2.1
⌃ [bdcacae8] LoopVectorization v0.12.101
⌃ [eb30cadb] MLDatasets v0.5.15
⌃ [add582a8] MLJ v0.18.6
  [c6f25543] MLJDecisionTreeInterface v0.4.0
  [af6c499f] MutableNamedTuples v0.1.3
⌅ [85f8d34a] NCDatasets v0.11.9
  [2774e3e8] NLsolve v4.5.1
  [636a865e] NearestNeighborModels v0.2.3
  [b8a86587] NearestNeighbors v0.4.13
  [429524aa] Optim v1.7.6
  [e4faabce] PProf v2.2.2
⌅ [a68b5a21] ParetoSmooth v0.6.6
  [54e51dfa] PerceptualColourMaps v0.3.6
⌃ [c3e4b0f8] Pluto v0.19.9
  [7f904dfe] PlutoUI v0.7.51
  [e409e4f3] PoissonRandom v0.4.4
  [647866c9] PolygonOps v0.1.2
  [c46f51b8] ProfileView v1.7.1
  [49802e3a] ProgressBars v1.5.0
  [92933f4c] ProgressMeter v1.7.2
  [6f49c342] RCall v0.13.15
  [e6cf234a] RandomNumbers v1.5.3
  [f2b01f46] Roots v2.0.17
⌃ [8e980c4a] Shapefile v0.7.4
⌅ [276daf66] SpecialFunctions v1.8.8
⌃ [2d09df54] StatisticalRethinking v4.0.4
⌅ [2913bbd2] StatsBase v0.33.21
  [09ab397b] StructArrays v0.6.15
  [37b6cedf] Traceur v0.3.1
⌃ [fce5fe82] Turing v0.26.0
  [770da0de] UpdateJulia v0.4.2
  [fdbf4ff8] XLSX v0.9.0
  [37e2e46d] LinearAlgebra
  [44cfe95a] Pkg v1.9.0
  [9abbd945] Profile
  [9a3f8284] Random
  [10745b16] Statistics v1.9.0
Info Packages marked with ⌃ and ⌅ have new versions available, but those with ⌅ are restricted by compatibility constraints from upgrading. To see why use `status --outdated`

```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![nilshg](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/nilshg/32/2283_2.png) [@nilshg](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/nilshg)\
**Post date:** [June 26, 2023, 7:55am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/failing-precompilation-for-decisiontree/100822/2 "2023-06-26T07:55:33Z")

</div>

Can you try Julia 1.9.1 and the latest `DecisionTree` version (0.12.3)?

On a general note, you are making the classic mistake of having a very crowded global environment which will almost guarantee version conflicts and packages being held back (e.g. I see `DataFrames` at version 1.3.6 when the latest is 1.5). Don’t do this, work in project-specific environments instead to which you only add the packages you need for whatever you are working on.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![alexdmeyer](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/alexdmeyer/32/29605_2.png) [@alexdmeyer](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/alexdmeyer)\
**Post date:** [June 26, 2023, 2:03pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/failing-precompilation-for-decisiontree/100822/3 "2023-06-26T14:03:03Z")

</div>

@nilshg You’re absolutely right, thank you! I was worried my package mismanagement would get me in trouble someday.

For anyone who stumbles upon this thread in the future, here’s a soft introduction to setting up project environments: [How to setup Project Environments in Julia | by René | Towards Data Science](https://towardsdatascience.com/how-to-setup-project-environments-in-julia-ec8ae73afe9c)

Thanks again,

ADM