# Is there a simple Julia upgrade command?
**URL:** https://discourse.julialang.org/t/is-there-a-simple-julia-upgrade-command/45691
**Category:** General Usage
**Created:** [August 27, 2020, 8:23am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/is-there-a-simple-julia-upgrade-command/45691 "2020-08-27T08:23:09Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@phymann](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/phymann)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2020, 8:23am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/is-there-a-simple-julia-upgrade-command/45691/1 "2020-08-27T08:23:09Z")
Hi, can we update Julia just inside Julia by running a command like `update`, rather than download a new version from website? š
---
### Author:  [@Tamas\_Papp](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Tamas_Papp)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2020, 8:37am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/is-there-a-simple-julia-upgrade-command/45691/2 "2020-08-27T08:37:23Z")
AFAIK not, but you can use a script like
[https://github.com/abelsiqueira/jill](https://github.com/abelsiqueira/jill)
---
### Author:  [@phymann](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/phymann)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2020, 8:55am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/is-there-a-simple-julia-upgrade-command/45691/3 "2020-08-27T08:55:09Z")
Thanks you, that seems to be a workaround.
I will try it next time, since I just update both my mac and linux version manually š
---
### Author:  [@DNF](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/DNF)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2020, 8:56am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/is-there-a-simple-julia-upgrade-command/45691/4 "2020-08-27T08:56:21Z")
I just installed 1.5.1 using [GitHub - johnnychen94/jill.py: A cross-platform installer for the Julia programming language](https://github.com/johnnychen94/jill.py) which is a python fork of the same script, with apparently some extra features. It was really easy, I just called
```julia
$ jill install
```
and it installed the latest version, and even found all my previously installed packages, though I hadnāt used Jill before.
As a relatively (well, very) new linux user, I am slightly confused about all the different install folder conventions going around. I never know if I should install in /usr/local/bin or /opt/ or whatever else (I donāt remember all the different ones Iāve seen). I installed Anaconda (python) earlier today, which put everything in ~/Anaconda3/ š
Jill by default installs to ~/packages/julias/ with symlinks in ~/.local/bin which was a totally new place for me. I wonder if there is some conventional wisdom on this. For now, my various different pieces of software are scattered all over the place.
---
### Author:  [@Tamas\_Papp](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Tamas_Papp)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2020, 8:58am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/is-there-a-simple-julia-upgrade-command/45691/5 "2020-08-27T08:58:15Z")
> [@DNF](#):
>
> ~/.local/bin which was a totally new place for me
If your machine is single-user, this is the best place. There is simply no need for anything that would require sudo or root access.
---
### Author:  [@DNF](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/DNF)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2020, 9:01am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/is-there-a-simple-julia-upgrade-command/45691/6 "2020-08-27T09:01:08Z")
Yes, it is. Thanks, Iāll keep that in mind.
My config stuff is in ~/.julia, but now I wonder if it should be in ~/.local/.julia ehh. or somewhere like that.
---
### Author:  [@johnh](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/johnh)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2020, 9:11am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/is-there-a-simple-julia-upgrade-command/45691/7 "2020-08-27T09:11:15Z")
My usual puff for those using Windows - consider using the Chocolatey package manager.
Julia 1.5.1 is available - just run choco update julia
---
### Author:  [@Palli](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Palli)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2020, 9:47am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/is-there-a-simple-julia-upgrade-command/45691/8 "2020-08-27T09:47:11Z")
Congratulations on the progress, and on master:
```julia
$ ~/julia-1.4.0/bin/julia -q
julia> @time using Plots
13.396186 seconds (13.81 M allocations: 773.200 MiB, 2.56% gc time)
vs. 1.5.1
9.904794 seconds (11.06 M allocations: 640.073 MiB, 3.11% gc time)
vs. 1.6 master:
5.579115 seconds (7.95 M allocations: 556.413 MiB, 5.02% gc time)
```
E.g. Gtk.jl has similar numbers, lower on master, higher on 1.4.0.
---
### Author:  [@kevbonham](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/kevbonham)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2020, 10:40am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/is-there-a-simple-julia-upgrade-command/45691/9 "2020-08-27T10:40:13Z")
> [@DNF](#):
>
> My config stuff is in ~/.julia, but now I wonder if it should be in ~/.local/.julia ehh. or somewhere like that.
No, `~/.julia` is fine. A lot of software makes hidden folders in the home directory like that. Ultimately, itās up to you - I think these conventions are pretty lose, but my preference lately has been to have all of my user scripts (the things I write) symlinked in `~/bin`, and executables from software I install symlinked in `~/.local/bin`.
But config files and stuff I just put wherever the default is, because I canāt be bothered to change (and then remember) the paths to those things
---
### Author:  [@NightMachinary](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/NightMachinary)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2020, 10:46am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/is-there-a-simple-julia-upgrade-command/45691/10 "2020-08-27T10:46:42Z")
Will I need to copy the environment (`Project.toml`, `Manifest.toml`) for upgrading from `1.5` to `1.5.1`? And rebuild and recompile everything?
PS: If youāre on macOS, upgrading Julia itself is easy if you use Homebrew: `brew cask upgrade julia`
I also wish Julia used versioned binary names, ala `julia-1.5`, and symlinked the selected one into the bin directory. That way we could easily revert to our old versions if something broke on an upgrade. (I think `asdf` can do this, but `asdf` is buggy and slow.)
Update: Just checked out jill.py; Seems like it has my desired features!
---
### Author:  [@Tamas\_Papp](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Tamas_Papp)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2020, 11:01am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/is-there-a-simple-julia-upgrade-command/45691/11 "2020-08-27T11:01:19Z")
Home directory layout are not strongly standardized. `~/.local` comes from the spec in
[https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/file-hierarchy.html](https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/file-hierarchy.html)
Once you have a `~/.julia` directory, you might as well have all the relevant stuff in it.
That said, one relevant consideration is backup exclusions, a lot of exclusion lists for backup tools ignore `~/.cache` automatically, and one has to do the same for subdirectories in `~/.julia` to avoid backing up gigabytes of files that can be downloaded/regenerated anytime.
---
### Author:  [@swissr](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/swissr)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2020, 2:16pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/is-there-a-simple-julia-upgrade-command/45691/12 "2020-08-27T14:16:27Z")
This is so true. Almost painful to mention that upgrading Julia on Windows is easier than on Pop! OS.
A minor remark: āupdateā is depreciated, itās āupgradeā now. Normally I do:
```
choco outdated # show outdated apps
choco upgrade all -y # upgrades everything
#choco upgrade julia # (I seldom upgrade specific apps)
```
Imho itās really well worth āwastingā the time to setup Chocolatey.
---
### Author:  [@NiclasMattsson](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/NiclasMattsson)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2020, 3:24pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/is-there-a-simple-julia-upgrade-command/45691/13 "2020-08-27T15:24:08Z")
> [@johnh](#):
>
> My usual puff for those using Windows - consider using the Chocolatey package manager.
> Julia 1.5.1 is available - just run choco update julia
Honest question - what benefits do Chocolatey bring when updating Julia on Windows? I just run the new installer (and for x.1 releases copy over the package environment) and everything works just as usual. Are other people having serious upgrade headaches?
---
### Author:  [@DNF](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/DNF)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2020, 3:27pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/is-there-a-simple-julia-upgrade-command/45691/14 "2020-08-27T15:27:56Z")
What youāre discribing here is actually a real inconvenience. Every time I forget how to handle environments/packages.On Linux/thereās also updating symlinks, not sure what you do on windows. But on linux/Macos itās 5-10 minutes each time, enough that I often postpone updating for weeks.
Jill may have solved this for me. Although, when I used Jill to install a nightly build, it didnāt find my packages/environments š
---
### Author:  [@johnh](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/johnh)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2020, 3:34pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/is-there-a-simple-julia-upgrade-command/45691/15 "2020-08-27T15:34:41Z")
I think the answer to that question must be yes. I have used Julia on Windows for several years. Quite often I see people on here getting tied in knots with windows 10 installs, including newbies who are driven to tears of frustration.
Since using Chocolatey I have had a much better experience.
Th emost recent example was a thread on IJulia not installing properly. I admit in that case the person did not have Admin rights so Choco was not the answer.
---
### Author:  [@PetrKryslUCSD](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/PetrKryslUCSD)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2020, 7:59pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/is-there-a-simple-julia-upgrade-command/45691/16 "2020-08-27T19:59:22Z")
I always use the standard Windows installer, and Iāve never had any problems.
---
### Author:  [@vf30kf](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/vf30kf)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2020, 7:59pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/is-there-a-simple-julia-upgrade-command/45691/17 "2020-08-27T19:59:28Z")
Speaking of newbies to Julia having frustrations. I guess I am in that camp.
Background info:
- I am on Windows 10 (64-bit)
- Julia binary is in: āC:\Users\myusrname\AppData\Local\Programs\Julia 1.5.1\bin\julia.exeā
- Packages are in: āC:\Users\myusrname.juliaā
I just finished upgrading to 1.5.1 and I would like to NOT have to re-install all the packages that I downloaded for the previous version. Is there an easy way to tell Julia 1.5.1 where my packages are at? Or will I have re-install each package I was previously using?
Since I am a relative newbie, if you can please explain it to me very basically. Thank you for your help.
---
### Author:  [@PetrKryslUCSD](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/PetrKryslUCSD)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2020, 8:00pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/is-there-a-simple-julia-upgrade-command/45691/18 "2020-08-27T20:00:55Z")
If you donāt mind the wait, just reinstall from scratch. I delete the .julia folder regularly.
All it takes is around five minutes to get it back through a reinstallation.
---
### Author:  [@fredrikekre](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/fredrikekre)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2020, 8:03pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/is-there-a-simple-julia-upgrade-command/45691/19 "2020-08-27T20:03:34Z")
> [@vf30kf](#):
>
> I just finished upgrading to 1.5.1 and I would like to NOT have to re-install all the packages that I downloaded for the previous version. Is there an easy way to tell Julia 1.5.1 where my packages are at? Or will I have re-install each package I was previously using?
If you upgraded from Julia 1.5.0 you shouldnāt have to do anything. If you upgraded from Julia 1.4.X you can copy `.julia/environments/v1.4` to `.julia/environments/v1.5` (just two text files).
---
### Author:  [@anon67531922](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/anon67531922)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2020, 8:21pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/is-there-a-simple-julia-upgrade-command/45691/20 "2020-08-27T20:21:21Z")
> [@PetrKryslUCSD](#):
>
> I delete the .julia folder regularly.
Oh wow. This is not a great recommendation for newbies š
I donāt think it should ever be necessary to delete .julia. At most, you might want to delete .julia/registries/General. Deleting .julia makes for a not-so-great user experience and Iāve seen it recommended a couple of times now.
> [@Julia v1.5.1 has been released](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julia-v1-5-1-has-been-released/45583/22):
>
> If you upgraded from Julia 1.5.0 you shouldnāt have to do anything. If you upgraded from Julia 1.4.X you can copy `.julia/environments/v1.4` to `.julia/environments/v1.5` (just two text files).
š
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