# Is it possible to activate an environment by absolute path?

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/is-it-possible-to-activate-an-environment-by-absolute-path/69131>\
**Category:** General Usage\
**Tags:** question, pkg\
**Created:** [October 3, 2021, 6:43am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/is-it-possible-to-activate-an-environment-by-absolute-path/69131 "2021-10-03T06:43:43Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![jishnub](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/jishnub/32/33620_2.png) [@jishnub](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/jishnub)\
**Post date:** [October 3, 2021, 6:43am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/is-it-possible-to-activate-an-environment-by-absolute-path/69131/1 "2021-10-03T06:43:43Z")

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For example

```julia
julia> using Pkg;

julia> Pkg.activate("~/abc")
  Activating new environment at `~/Dropbox/JuliaPackages/~/abc/Project.toml`

```

assumes that the path is relative, however I wanted to use an absolute path here. Is it possible to indicate this to `activate`? Or should I change to the home directory first and then activate the local path?

Interestingly, if the environment path is specified as a parameter while launching Julia, it is treated as an absolute path

```julia
jishnu:JuliaPackages/ $ julia --project=~/abc [11:03:15]
┌ Warning: no Manifest.toml file found, static paths used
└ @ Revise ~/.julia/packages/Revise/1boD5/src/packagedef.jl:1369
               _
   _ _ _(_)_ | Documentation: https://docs.julialang.org
  (_) | (_) (_) |
   _ _ _| |_ __ _ | Type "?" for help, "]?" for Pkg help.
  | | | | | | |/ _` | |
  | | |_| | | | (_| | | Version 1.6.3 (2021-09-23)
 _/ |\ __'_|_|_|\__'_| | Official https://julialang.org/ release
|__/ |

julia> Base.active_project()
"/home/jishnu/abc/Project.toml"

```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![disberd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8edcca/32.png) [@disberd](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/disberd)\
**Post date:** [October 3, 2021, 7:13am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/is-it-possible-to-activate-an-environment-by-absolute-path/69131/2 "2021-10-03T07:13:47Z")

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You could try using `joinpath(homedir(), "abc")`, probably ~ is not automatically interpreted as the home directory in the string in Julia and it is in the shell when you are passing the project parameter to Julia

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**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:** [October 3, 2021, 7:45am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/is-it-possible-to-activate-an-environment-by-absolute-path/69131/3 "2021-10-03T07:45:30Z")

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```julia
julia> expanduser("~/abc")
"/home/gunnar/abc"

```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![kristoffer.carlsson](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/kristoffer.carlsson/32/22_2.png) [@kristoffer.carlsson](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/kristoffer.carlsson)\
**Post date:** [October 3, 2021, 7:52am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/is-it-possible-to-activate-an-environment-by-absolute-path/69131/4 "2021-10-03T07:52:17Z")

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The Pkg REPL mode should also expand it.