# How do I convert to using the package tarball format?
**URL:** https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-do-i-convert-to-using-the-package-tarball-format/126100
**Category:** General Usage
**Created:** [February 20, 2025, 5:43am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-do-i-convert-to-using-the-package-tarball-format/126100 "2025-02-20T05:43:50Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@magister-ludi](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/magister-ludi)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2025, 5:43am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-do-i-convert-to-using-the-package-tarball-format/126100/1 "2025-02-20T05:43:50Z")
I can’t remember when this started (I think it was when I started using the 11.x series, it definitely happens for 11.2 and 11.3). When I do a `Pkg.add(...)` or a `Pkg.update()`, if it’s time for the repository data to be refreshed I get a message
```julia
Updating registry at `C:\Users\[username]\.julia\registries\General`
┌ Info: The General registry is installed via git. Consider reinstalling it via
│ the newer faster direct from tarball format by running:
│ pkg> registry rm General; registry add General
└
```
In this case, it’s on a Windows box, but the same thing happens when running Linux (or WSL). I have followed the instructions a few times, but still get the same message when a refresh happens.
I thought that this post (on a slightly different topic) might be a solution:
> [@Repository error in Julia 1.6.7](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/repository-error-in-julia-1-6-7/125890/2):
>
> What if you do delete the directory C:\Users\photo\.julia\registries\General? That should let the package manager use the sparse registry instead of the git repo one.
but again there was no change.
This is an annoyance, not a showstopper, but if there’s a faster way for things to install or update, it would be nice to find it.
---
### Author:  [@GunnarFarneback](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/GunnarFarneback)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2025, 10:10am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-do-i-convert-to-using-the-package-tarball-format/126100/2 "2025-02-20T10:10:25Z")
These instructions should be effective in the default case but under some circumstances they won’t be. Things to look into is if you have set the environment variable `JULIA_PKG_SERVER` or if the package server is unreachable for firewall or other reasons.
---
### Author:  [@magister-ludi](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/magister-ludi)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2025, 11:02am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-do-i-convert-to-using-the-package-tarball-format/126100/3 "2025-02-20T11:02:09Z")
Thank you for your response. I haven’t set `JULIA_PKG_SERVER` explicitly, but it appears to be set to the empty string `""` in the REPL. I tried
```julia
delete!( ENV,"JULIA_PKG_SERVER")
# output of ENV...
julia> haskey(ENV, "JULIA_PKG_SERVER")
false
```
After that, I tried
```julia
(@v1.11) pkg> update
```
and got the same warning as before.
---
### Author:  [@GunnarFarneback](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/GunnarFarneback)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2025, 11:11am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-do-i-convert-to-using-the-package-tarball-format/126100/4 "2025-02-20T11:11:57Z")
Setting `JULIA_PKG_SERVER` to an empty string is a way to explicitly opt out of any use of the package servers, so you first need to find out what’s causing that. It’s not something which happens by default, so something in your environment must be doing it explicitly.
Once that is fixed,
```julia
pkg> registry rm General; registry add General
```
should give you a registry in tarball format and the warning should go away.
---
### Author:  [@magister-ludi](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/magister-ludi)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2025, 9:29pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-do-i-convert-to-using-the-package-tarball-format/126100/5 "2025-02-20T21:29:05Z")
Thanks for your update. As described in my earlier posts, I used the default value
```julia
ENV["JULIA_PKG_SERVER"} = ""
```
when running
```julia
pkg> registry rm General; registry add General
```
The attempt after deleting the key altogether was an experiment that clearly didn’t work.
I’m sure you are correct when you suggest that something else in my environment is odd. At some point I’ll look into `Pkg` to try to work out how the warning is triggered, but it’s no big deal to live with it for now. Thanks again for your advice.
---
### Author:  [@magister-ludi](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/magister-ludi)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2025, 10:15pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-do-i-convert-to-using-the-package-tarball-format/126100/6 "2025-02-20T22:15:25Z")
I have checked the source of `Pkg.jl`. There are two places in the code where the `@info` message could be emitted. Both of them check whether the registry name is `"General"` (obviously `true` in my case), and whether `ENV` has the key `"JULIA_PKG_GEN_REG_FMT_CHECK"`, defaulting to `true` if it doesn’t.
Since that key doesn’t exist in my environment, both tests pass and the message is emitted. I don’t know when the variable for the second test could/should have been set, but I have now added
```julia
ENV["JULIA_PKG_GEN_REG_FMT_CHECK"] = "0"
```
to `~/.julia/startup.jl` and did
```julia
pkg> registry rm General; registry add General
```
The message has disappeared.
Your replies prompted me to do a proper investigation, so thanks again.