# Installing dependencies for separate Project.toml during package development/testing

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/installing-dependencies-for-separate-project-toml-during-package-development-testing/70413>\
**Category:** Package Management\
**Tags:** question, pkg\
**Created:** [October 26, 2021, 3:52pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/installing-dependencies-for-separate-project-toml-during-package-development-testing/70413 "2021-10-26T15:52:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![AnHeuermann](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/anheuermann/32/27059_2.png) [@AnHeuermann](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/AnHeuermann)\
**Post date:** [October 26, 2021, 3:52pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/installing-dependencies-for-separate-project-toml-during-package-development-testing/70413/1 "2021-10-26T15:52:00Z")

</div>

I’m developing a package `A` wich has some unit tests as well as some examples.  
I want my unit tests to be fast, so I seperated the examples from my unit tests using an additional Project.toml (this saves me a few minutes on every CI run on the tests).

The structure of my package looks like this:

```julia
A.jl/
| -- examples/
| | example1.jl
| | Manifest.toml
| | Project.toml
| -- src/
| | A.jl
| -- test/
| | runtests.jl
| | Manifest.toml
| | Project.toml
| Manifest.toml
| Project.toml

```

with

example1.jl

```julia
using A
# Do stuff with A

```

Now building and testing `A` works fine:

```nohighlight
(@v1.6) pkg> activate .
(A) pkg> build
(A) pkg> test

```

But now I’m struggeling to installing all dependencies for `example/` in a way that I can just run `include("example/example1.jl")` to run my example.

What I managed to get running is the following:

```bash
julia --project=. -e 'import Pkg; Pkg.activate("examples"); Pkg.instantiate(); include("examples/example1.jl")'

```

Is this a good way to install dependencies and then run a Julia file?

What exactly is done during `Pkg.test()`? I think the procedure should be equivalent to what I want to achieve for `example/`: Install additional packages from project.toml and then include a file.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ffevotte](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/ffevotte/32/6587_2.png) [@ffevotte](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/ffevotte)\
**Post date:** [October 26, 2021, 4:32pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/installing-dependencies-for-separate-project-toml-during-package-development-testing/70413/2 "2021-10-26T16:32:47Z")

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> [@AnHeuermann](#):
>
> Is this a good way to install dependencies and then run a Julia file?

Marginal note: you could avoid the `activate` part using the `--project` command-line switch:

```bash
julia --project=examples -e 'import Pkg; Pkg.instantiate(); include("examples/example1.jl")'

```

Apart from that, this looks more or less like what I do (but let’s see if others have better ideas to suggest!)

Note that this works fine if the project defined in `examples/Project.toml` knows about its “parent project” `A`. In your case, maybe you used `Pkg.dev` to add project `A` as a dependency of project `examples`?

  

> [@AnHeuermann](#):
>
> What exactly is done during `Pkg.test()` ? I think the procedure should be equivalent to what I want to achieve for `example/` : Install additional packages from project.toml and then include a file.

I’m not sure about all the details, but `Pkg.test()` involves spawning a new julia process with additional command-line flags (like `--check-bounds=yes`) in order to make sure your tests run in a clean and “hardened” environment so that you can catch as many errors as possible. You might not want all of that when running your examples.

Also, `Pkg.test()` somehow merges the main environment (defined by project `A`) with the testing environment (defined by `test/Project.toml`). This makes it possible for your tests to refer to project `A` without explicitly `Pkg.develop`ing it in the testing environment. I might not be up to speed on this topic, but last time I checked there were discussions about allowing such super-project / sub-project relations in broader contexts than just tests.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![AnHeuermann](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/anheuermann/32/27059_2.png) [@AnHeuermann](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/AnHeuermann)\
**Post date:** [October 27, 2021, 8:33am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/installing-dependencies-for-separate-project-toml-during-package-development-testing/70413/3 "2021-10-27T08:33:10Z")

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> [@ffevotte](#):
>
> Note that this works fine if the project defined in `examples/Project.toml` knows about its “parent project” `A` . In your case, maybe you used `Pkg.dev` to add project `A` as a dependency of project `examples` ?

That is what I did wrong.

I tried to add `A` to `examples/Project.toml` with `Pkg.add("..")`. I thought that I need to add a path relative to `examples/`. In the end it happend to be an absolute path in my Manifest.toml (I tried so much stuff…), which worked on my machine but breaks everywhere else.

Of course my working directory is still `A.jl/`.  
So for my case I need to add `A` with:

```repl
(examples) pkg> add .

```

The `examples/Manifest.toml` has now the correct `repo-url = ".."`.

Thanks!

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ffevotte](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/ffevotte/32/6587_2.png) [@ffevotte](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/ffevotte)\
**Post date:** [October 27, 2021, 9:30am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/installing-dependencies-for-separate-project-toml-during-package-development-testing/70413/4 "2021-10-27T09:30:18Z")

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> [@AnHeuermann](#):
>
> So for my case I need to add `A` with:
> 
> ```julia
> (examples) pkg> add .
> 
> ```

I think you’d be better off using `Pkg.dev` instead of `Pkg.add`:

```julia
(examples) pkg> dev .

```

That way, when running your examples, you’ll always use the latest version of `A`: as it stands in your filesystem, as opposed to the version that was fetched at the time of `Pkg.add(".")`.