# Installing packages and Julia outside of home folder? (minimal user space)

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/installing-packages-and-julia-outside-of-home-folder-minimal-user-space/127685>\
**Category:** General Usage\
**Created:** [April 3, 2025, 8:02pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/installing-packages-and-julia-outside-of-home-folder-minimal-user-space/127685 "2025-04-03T20:02:52Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Balinus](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/balinus/32/243_2.png) [@Balinus](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Balinus)\
**Post date:** [April 3, 2025, 8:02pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/installing-packages-and-julia-outside-of-home-folder-minimal-user-space/127685/1 "2025-04-03T20:02:52Z")

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Hello!

I am about to work on a HPC with very limited home user space (about 5GB). From experience, I know that my julia projects can quickly add lots of packages, etc into the user’s `.julia` folder. Is there a documented way to specify to install everything into a “project” folder (this is the way this HPC works apparently).

So for example, having a structure like this:

```julia
/path/to/project/.julia
/path/to/project/src
/path/to/project/test
/path/to/project/etc

```

The `.julia` folder (package and binary) could be decoupled from `/path/to/project/`, as long as space is not taken in the home folder.

I have looked at the different threads and I haven’t seen an easy way to do it. This seems like something happening often in the HPC world no?

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**Author:** ![GunnarFarneback](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/gunnarfarneback/32/1827_2.png) [@GunnarFarneback](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/GunnarFarneback)\
**Post date:** [April 3, 2025, 8:13pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/installing-packages-and-julia-outside-of-home-folder-minimal-user-space/127685/2 "2025-04-03T20:13:43Z")

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The `JULIA_DEPOT_PATH` environment variable can be used to customize a location for what’s normally in `.julia`.

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**Author:** ![abraemer](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/abraemer/32/51403_2.png) [@abraemer](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/abraemer)\
**Post date:** [April 3, 2025, 8:30pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/installing-packages-and-julia-outside-of-home-folder-minimal-user-space/127685/3 "2025-04-03T20:30:46Z")

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In addition to @GunnarFarneback’s suggestion, a simple symlink could also do the job just fine.

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**Author:** ![Balinus](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/balinus/32/243_2.png) [@Balinus](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Balinus)\
**Post date:** [April 4, 2025, 1:48pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/installing-packages-and-julia-outside-of-home-folder-minimal-user-space/127685/4 "2025-04-04T13:48:43Z")

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Thanks! So, I could simply install julia with say juliaup, then define the `JULIA_DEPOT_PATH=/path/to/project/.julia` and the packages should install there when I add packages, create environments, etc?

For symlink, I am less used to use that. How should I implement that? I was under the impression that with symlink, the packages would still be installed in the home folder (?)

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**Author:** ![GunnarFarneback](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/gunnarfarneback/32/1827_2.png) [@GunnarFarneback](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/GunnarFarneback)\
**Post date:** [April 4, 2025, 1:57pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/installing-packages-and-julia-outside-of-home-folder-minimal-user-space/127685/5 "2025-04-04T13:57:07Z")

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Yes. But if you have multiple projects you most likely want to share one depot between them.

The general symlink idea would be to put a pointer from `~/.julia` to a different filesystem. Then the files would be addressed like they were in your home folder but in fact they reside somewhere else.

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**Author:** ![Balinus](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/balinus/32/243_2.png) [@Balinus](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Balinus)\
**Post date:** [April 4, 2025, 6:16pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/installing-packages-and-julia-outside-of-home-folder-minimal-user-space/127685/6 "2025-04-04T18:16:05Z")

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Ah, I see, thanks!

It should be only a single project, it is a temporary computing solution. I’ll give a try next week. Thanks again for your answers @GunnarFarneback and @abraemer