# Including a folder
**URL:** https://discourse.julialang.org/t/including-a-folder/56308
**Category:** General Usage
**Tags:** question, macros
**Created:** [March 2, 2021, 7:45am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/including-a-folder/56308 "2021-03-02T07:45:49Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Amval](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Amval)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2021, 7:45am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/including-a-folder/56308/1 "2021-03-02T07:45:49Z")
Hello,
I want to be able to do something like this:
```julia
module Example
include_folder("my/modules")
end
```
And `include_folder` should look similar to this:
```julia
module Utils
function include_folder(path::AbstractString)
paths = joinpath.(Ref(path), readdir(path))
julia_files = filter(f -> endswith(f, ".jl"), paths)
include.(julia_files)
end
end
```
The problem is that is not going to include the files in the module of the caller, but wherever `include_folder` is defined. I know that macros have an extra ` __module__ ` argument, representing the caller’s module, so I have tried to define a macro.
This is what I got so far:
```julia
macro include_folder(path)
quote
paths = joinpath.(Ref($path), readdir($path))
local julia_files = filter(f -> endswith(f, ".jl"), paths)
:(include.($julia_files))
end
end
```
Which is wrong and returns:
> include.([“my/modules/mod1.jl”, “…”])
I don’t think I understand how macros work, and my attempts at running that code inside the macro have failed (wrapping the quote in an extra eval, ommiting the last quote, etc).
So, a few questions:
- is it possible to do this in a simpler way? (Avoiding macros alltogether)
- is this a terrible idea for any reason?
- how can I make this work?
Right now this work, but seems very wrong:
```julia
@eval @include_folder("my/modules")
```
Any help is appreciated, thanks in advance.
---
### Author:  [@greg\_plowman](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/greg_plowman)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2021, 8:33am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/including-a-folder/56308/2 "2021-03-02T08:33:32Z")
According to the documentation for `include`, “Every module (except those defined with baremodule) has its own definition of include, which evaluates the file in that module.”
But you can “Use Base.include to evaluate a file into another module.”
So maybe you can pass the required module to your `include_folder` function, which then `Base.includes` the files in that module:
```julia
module Utils
export include_folder
function include_folder(m::Module, path::AbstractString)
paths = joinpath.(Ref(path), readdir(path))
julia_files = filter(f -> endswith(f, ".jl"), paths)
Base.include.(Ref(m), julia_files)
end
end
```
And then pass the current module to `include_folder` with `@ __MODULE__ `
```julia
module Example
using Utils
include_folder(@ __MODULE__ , "my/modules")
end
```
---
### Author:  [@Amval](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Amval)
#### Post date: [March 2, 2021, 8:51am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/including-a-folder/56308/3 "2021-03-02T08:51:51Z")
Thanks, that works. I must have skipped that part in the documentation. This would work:
```julia
macro include_folder(path)
quote
paths = joinpath.(Ref($path), readdir($path))
local julia_files = filter(f -> endswith(f, ".jl"), paths)
Base.include.(Ref($ __module__ ), $julia_files)
end
end
```
However I would be curious if someone could tell me how to solve my firs attempt at a macro. Not for this particular problem, but for better understanding of how macros work.