# Julia packages as part of other repos

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julia-packages-as-part-of-other-repos/11272>\
**Category:** General Usage\
**Tags:** pkg\
**Created:** [May 30, 2018, 7:32pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julia-packages-as-part-of-other-repos/11272 "2018-05-30T19:32:37Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![ExpandingMan](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/expandingman/32/866_2.png) [@ExpandingMan](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/ExpandingMan)\
**Post date:** [May 30, 2018, 7:32pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julia-packages-as-part-of-other-repos/11272/1 "2018-05-30T19:32:37Z")

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We are currently having a [discussion](https://github.com/ExpandingMan/Arrow.jl/issues/28) about the possibility of moving the Julia arrow implementation into the main [arrow](https://github.com/apache/arrow) repo, if the arrow people ultimately decide that they want that.

Some of us have raised the concern that not having an “Arrow.jl” (i.e. a repo in the standard Julia package format) would greatly complicate its usage.

To be honest, I’m very skeptical about why they want to have an absolutely gigantic repo with every language under the sun in it, rather than having e.g. multiple repos within a github collaboration. Certainly this is on the opposite end of the spectrum from how most Julia packages are set up. Obviously I’m not going to persuade the arrow people to change that, so I’m perfectly willing to indulge this way of doing things if it gets Julia arrow compatibility moving forward.

I’m imagining that it might be possible to create an “Arrow.jl” repo somewhere that simply mirrors a directory within the main arrow repository, does anyone have any experience setting something like that up?

I’m also wondering if the Pkg3 people have any insightful comments about this.

Thanks all.

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**Author:** ![rdeits](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/rdeits/32/286_2.png) [@rdeits](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/rdeits)\
**Post date:** [May 30, 2018, 8:25pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julia-packages-as-part-of-other-repos/11272/2 "2018-05-30T20:25:38Z")

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Related: [Options for working with SVN repo?](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/options-for-working-with-svn-repo/11174) . That post doesn’t really have any answers, other than that this sort of thing should be possible in Pkg3, but I suspect that you’ll learn things from thinking about this that would be useful in that thread as well.

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**Author:** ![StefanKarpinski](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/stefankarpinski/32/24_2.png) [@StefanKarpinski](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/StefanKarpinski)\
**Post date:** [May 30, 2018, 8:50pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julia-packages-as-part-of-other-repos/11272/3 "2018-05-30T20:50:13Z")

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> [@ExpandingMan](#):
>
> I’m also wondering if the Pkg3 people have any insightful comments about this.

Pkg3 associates versions with git trees, which means, among other things, that the tree can be a subdirectory of a git repo, not just the root directory. So it would be possible to have an `Arrow.jl` subdiretory of the main `arrow` repo which has the standard Julia package layout. It doesn’t need to be named `Arrow.jl` either, it could be named `julia` to match the convention in that repo. We don’t really have much tooling support this yet, so it may be better to wait a bit, but this could also be a test case to drive the development of such tooling.