# Help me understand juliaup

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/help-me-understand-juliaup/111218>\
**Category:** General Usage\
**Created:** [March 5, 2024, 9:25pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/help-me-understand-juliaup/111218 "2024-03-05T21:25:38Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![StevenSiew](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/stevensiew/32/218393_2.png) [@StevenSiew](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/StevenSiew)\
**Post date:** [March 5, 2024, 9:25pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/help-me-understand-juliaup/111218/1 "2024-03-05T21:25:38Z")

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I have a Mac and I use julia  
I install julia on my mac manually  
I wish to use juliaup  
However I failed to find documentation about juliaup (especially about how it stores various version of julia internally)

This is what I know about juliaup

1. juliaup uses channel
2. juliaup hides julia and instead replaces julia executable with julialauncher executable
3. to use julia I type “julia +1.6 options options” on the commandline
4. the julialauncher determines that I wanted julia 1.6.x and launches it

What I WANT to know is

1. Where do juliaup puts varies version of julia on my mac
2. Where is julialauncher located
3. What happens to my existing julia that I have installed manually?
4. Where can I find documentation about how juliaup works (ie question 1 and 2 and 3)
5. Who do I contact for help and questions
6. What happens to my existing symbolic link below after I install juliaup

```julia
$ cd /usr/local/bin
$ ls -l julia
lrwxr-xr-x 1 ssiew admin 63 28 Dec 14:41 julia -> /Applications/Julia-1.10.app/Contents/Resources/julia/bin/julia

```

Regards

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![sylvaticus](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/sylvaticus/32/203883_2.png) [@sylvaticus](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/sylvaticus)\
**Post date:** [March 5, 2024, 9:43pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/help-me-understand-juliaup/111218/2 "2024-03-05T21:43:10Z")

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If Mac is like Linux, just use symlinks with the officials binaries and you are perfectly fine… I have installed using symlinks almost all versions of Julia from 0.7 onward and never got a problem…:

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**Author:** ![mbauman](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/mbauman/32/31082_2.png) [@mbauman](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/mbauman)\
**Post date:** [March 5, 2024, 10:16pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/help-me-understand-juliaup/111218/3 "2024-03-05T22:16:46Z")

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Juliaup installs its small launcher binary at `~/.julia/juliaup/bin/julia`. As long as `~/.julia/juliaup/bin` appears in your `PATH` ahead of your existing install — and IIRC the installer prompts you and does this for you if you choose — then it’ll gracefully supersede any existing install. It doesn’t use/replace/touch existing installs.

The individual Julia installs it manages are independently stored in `~/.julia/juliaup/` — and they’re exactly the same as the official binaries. I used to manually install and manage symlinks to each version myself, too, but `juliaup` is one of those things that just works™; it’s lovely.

It’s open source. The project home is [GitHub - JuliaLang/juliaup: Julia installer and version multiplexer](https://github.com/JuliaLang/juliaup).