# Julia is missing the deactivate command

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julia-is-missing-the-deactivate-command/22185>\
**Category:** New to Julia\
**Created:** [March 22, 2019, 7:59am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julia-is-missing-the-deactivate-command/22185 "2019-03-22T07:59:25Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 12

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**Author:** ![carstenbauer](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/carstenbauer/32/4981_2.png) [@carstenbauer](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/carstenbauer)\
**Post date:** [February 28, 2020, 9:42am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julia-is-missing-the-deactivate-command/22185/12 "2020-02-28T09:42:59Z")

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While true I think our documentation is still not as good as it could be. I think the relevant sentence

> If no argument is given to `activate` , then activate the home project. The home project is specified by either the `--project` command line option to the julia executable, or the `JULIA_PROJECT` environment variable.

could be confusing for a beginner. What if I neither started Julia with `--project` nor set the `JULIA_PROJECT` environment variable and do `] activate`? It’s not clear from the docstring what will happen in this case.

Also, note the use of the term “home project”. I reckon the difference between “home project” and “default project” (v1.x) is subtle to a beginner who, again, likely hasn’t specified a “home project”. In this context, let me also mention that the “default project” (v1.x) - which by default is equal to the “home project” - is special in the sense that it is (by another default) also the “global project”. A fact which is also not as clear from the documentation as it could be (you have to read about the `LOAD_PATH` to understand this, an advanced concept in my opinion).

As has been discussed on Slack at some point (@davidanthoff) I personally think that the “default project” shouldn’t be equal to the “global environment” (the one which automatically is in the `LOAD_PATH`) to begin with. I’d like extra syntax like `] add --global MyPackage` for adding a package to a separate global environment. This way, confusions like [this one, which came up just yesterday,](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/ann-mybinder-org-support-for-julia-1-x-and-project-toml/22522/28) could be easily avoided.

In any case, I think that the Pkg documentation in its entirety explains almost all features/mechanisms, but individual sections can be pretty confusing without reading the rest of the docs. I think we can do better and I hope to find the time to make a few PRs soon.

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