# JULIA\_PROJECT and julia --project

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julia-project-and-julia-project/13458>\
**Category:** General Usage\
**Tags:** pkg\
**Created:** [August 14, 2018, 6:59pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julia-project-and-julia-project/13458 "2018-08-14T18:59:09Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![danielmatz](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/danielmatz/32/2285_2.png) [@danielmatz](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/danielmatz)\
**Post date:** [August 14, 2018, 6:59pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julia-project-and-julia-project/13458/1 "2018-08-14T18:59:09Z")

</div>

I was just reading the documentation for [Pkg.activate](https://docs.julialang.org/en/stable/stdlib/Pkg/#Pkg.activate). Using the `JULIA_PROJECT` environment variable works as expected, and Julia activates the specified project. But the `--project` command line argument does not seem to work at all. If I provide the path that I used for `JULIA_PROJECT` as the argument to `--project`, I get:

```julia
ERROR: could not open file /Users/dmatz/Data/Julia/TrickData.jl/
Stacktrace:
 [1] include at ./boot.jl:317 [inlined]
 [2] include_relative(::Module, ::String) at ./loading.jl:1038
 [3] include(::Module, ::String) at ./sysimg.jl:29
 [4] exec_options(::Base.JLOptions) at ./client.jl:229
 [5] _start() at ./client.jl:421

```

Am I just misunderstanding `--project`, or is this a bug?

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<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:** [August 14, 2018, 7:13pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julia-project-and-julia-project/13458/2 "2018-08-14T19:13:40Z")

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Could you show the command you use to start julia?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![danielmatz](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/danielmatz/32/2285_2.png) [@danielmatz](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/danielmatz)\
**Post date:** [August 14, 2018, 7:39pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julia-project-and-julia-project/13458/3 "2018-08-14T19:39:44Z")

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Sure.

```julia
$ pwd
/Users/dmatz/Data/Julia
$ julia --project TrickData.jl
ERROR: could not open file /Users/dmatz/Data/Julia/TrickData.jl
Stacktrace:
 [1] include at ./boot.jl:317 [inlined]
 [2] include_relative(::Module, ::String) at ./loading.jl:1038
 [3] include(::Module, ::String) at ./sysimg.jl:29
 [4] exec_options(::Base.JLOptions) at ./client.jl:229
 [5] _start() at ./client.jl:421

```

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<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:** [August 14, 2018, 7:44pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julia-project-and-julia-project/13458/4 "2018-08-14T19:44:14Z")

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try `julia --project=TrickData.jl`

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![danielmatz](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/danielmatz/32/2285_2.png) [@danielmatz](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/danielmatz)\
**Post date:** [August 14, 2018, 7:46pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julia-project-and-julia-project/13458/5 "2018-08-14T19:46:12Z")

</div>

Yes, that works. Why I didn’t think to try that, I don’t know… Thank you!