```
Now you have those files in the specified folder.
---
### Author:  [@ufechner7](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/ufechner7)
#### Post date: [December 7, 2019, 4:15pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-store-the-set-of-needed-packages-in-git/31975/7 "2019-12-07T16:15:12Z")
Ok, I have now the two above mentioned files.
Now I switched to julia 1.3, run
]instantiate
run my program, and it says: package xxx not found.
So my impression is that instantiate has no effect.
---
### Author:  [@BeastyBlacksmith](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/BeastyBlacksmith)
#### Post date: [December 7, 2019, 4:16pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-store-the-set-of-needed-packages-in-git/31975/8 "2019-12-07T16:16:12Z")
Did you activate the folder again? You will see it by the name of the blue prompt.
---
### Author:  [@ufechner7](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/ufechner7)
#### Post date: [December 7, 2019, 4:21pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-store-the-set-of-needed-packages-in-git/31975/9 "2019-12-07T16:21:38Z")
Ok, using
```julia
activate .
```
helped.
But when do I need to use activate, and when instantiate?
And do I need to commit both Project.toml and/or Manifest.toml?
---
### Author:  [@BeastyBlacksmith](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/BeastyBlacksmith)
#### Post date: [December 7, 2019, 4:28pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-store-the-set-of-needed-packages-in-git/31975/10 "2019-12-07T16:28:15Z")
Always activate the environment/project that you want to instantiate.
If you just commit the the `Project.toml` instantiating will give you the most recent versions of Packages compatible with your `Project.toml` if you instantiate from the `Manifest.toml` you will get the exact versions that you had loaded at the time creating that `Manifest.toml`.
What to commit depends on your usecase.
Also have a glance at the [documentation](https://julialang.github.io/Pkg.jl/v1/toml-files/).
---
### Author:  [@ufechner7](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/ufechner7)
#### Post date: [December 7, 2019, 4:37pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-store-the-set-of-needed-packages-in-git/31975/11 "2019-12-07T16:37:56Z")
To summarize:
a. to create a local Project.toml and Manifest.toml, first activate the project folder and then add all required packages
b. commit both files, if you want to make sure a reproducible set of packages is used,
if you want to use always the newest versions commit Project.toml only
c. after check out execute both ]activate and ]instantiate
d. after you have been working on a different project and you want to switch back it is sufficient to use only ]activate
e. you can use `julia --project` to do the `activate` command when you start julia
Is my understanding correct?
---
### Author:  [@pdeffebach](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/pdeffebach)
#### Post date: [December 7, 2019, 4:44pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-store-the-set-of-needed-packages-in-git/31975/12 "2019-12-07T16:44:32Z")
yes and you can use `julia --project` to do the `activate` command when you start julia.
---
### Author:  [@ufechner7](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/ufechner7)
#### Post date: [December 7, 2019, 4:45pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-store-the-set-of-needed-packages-in-git/31975/13 "2019-12-07T16:45:40Z")
Thanks!
---
### Author:  [@BeastyBlacksmith](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/BeastyBlacksmith)
#### Post date: [December 7, 2019, 4:46pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-store-the-set-of-needed-packages-in-git/31975/14 "2019-12-07T16:46:25Z")
If you created the project on a given machine, you usually don’t need to instantiate. Only if you send code to others or to a different machine and then doing it once is enough.
---
### Author:  [@ufechner7](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/ufechner7)
#### Post date: [December 7, 2019, 5:01pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-store-the-set-of-needed-packages-in-git/31975/15 "2019-12-07T17:01:05Z")
Well, my colleagues might also update the package versions, so I have to instantiate after each checkout to be sure to use the same versions.
---
### Author:  [@pdeffebach](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/pdeffebach)
#### Post date: [December 7, 2019, 6:02pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-store-the-set-of-needed-packages-in-git/31975/16 "2019-12-07T18:02:34Z")
With a good enough test suite, this shouldn’t be a problem. Assuming people obey semver you really should only need the Project.toml and not the Manifest.toml.
---
### Author:  [@jkbest2](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/jkbest2)
#### Post date: [December 7, 2019, 6:39pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-store-the-set-of-needed-packages-in-git/31975/17 "2019-12-07T18:39:29Z")
I think the exception to this is if you depend on any unregistered packages.
---
### Author:  [@pdeffebach](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/pdeffebach)
#### Post date: [December 7, 2019, 7:35pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-store-the-set-of-needed-packages-in-git/31975/18 "2019-12-07T19:35:36Z")
Note that you can add package via a valid `git` URL and that package has a project.toml, things will work iirc. But yes for packages added via URL there won’t be a version number and only the Manifest.toml will have the unique git hash that identifies what the repository looked like at the exact moment it was added.
---
### Author:  [@pdeffebach](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/pdeffebach)
#### Post date: [December 7, 2019, 7:42pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-store-the-set-of-needed-packages-in-git/31975/19 "2019-12-07T19:42:16Z")
Though you _can_ add a particular commit for a repository, which means you can still work using only `Project.toml`
---
### Author:  [@jkbest2](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/jkbest2)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2019, 12:09am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-store-the-set-of-needed-packages-in-git/31975/20 "2019-12-08T00:09:50Z")
I haven’t had had luck with this. For example, the [`Project.toml` for one of my unregistered packages](https://github.com/jkbest2/FisherySim.jl/blob/master/Project.toml) includes a dependence on another unregistered packages (`TweedieDistributions.jl`), but only includes the UUIDs for each package so there’s no way to find the package from only the `Project.toml` file.
[Next page](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-store-the-set-of-needed-packages-in-git/31975.md?page=2)