# ModelingToolkit takes forever to precompile on Windows 11

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/modelingtoolkit-takes-forever-to-precompile-on-windows-11/114492>\
**Category:** Package Management\
**Created:** [May 21, 2024, 7:08am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/modelingtoolkit-takes-forever-to-precompile-on-windows-11/114492 "2024-05-21T07:08:28Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 15\
**Page:** 5

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**Author:** ![BLI](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/bli/32/37206_2.png) [@BLI](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/BLI)\
**Post date:** [May 25, 2024, 12:06pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/modelingtoolkit-takes-forever-to-precompile-on-windows-11/114492/82 "2024-05-25T12:06:35Z")

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Weird and weirder… I’m trying to do some minimal work with Julia v10.3

```julia
using DataInterpolations
using Plots, LaTeXStrings, Latexify
using DataFrames, CSV

```

I have deleted the `compiled` and `environments` directories of `.julia`, and then used `Pkg` to add only the above packages – nothing else.

When I try to run the above code, I get the following error message:

```julia
ERROR: LoadError: ArgumentError: Package SpecialFunctions [276daf66-3868-5448-9aa4-cd146d93841b] is required but does not seem to be installed:
 - Run `Pkg.instantiate()` to install all recorded dependencies.

Stacktrace:
  [1] _require(pkg::Base.PkgId, env::String)
    @ Base .\loading.jl:1926
  [2] __require_prelocked(uuidkey::Base.PkgId, env::String)
    @ Base .\loading.jl:1812
  [3] #invoke_in_world#3
    @ .\essentials.jl:926 [inlined]
  [4] invoke_in_world
    @ .\essentials.jl:923 [inlined]
  [5] _require_prelocked(uuidkey::Base.PkgId, env::String)
    @ Base .\loading.jl:1803
  [6] macro expansion
    @ .\loading.jl:1790 [inlined]
  [7] macro expansion
    @ .\lock.jl:267 [inlined]
  [8] __require(into::Module, mod::Symbol)
    @ Base .\loading.jl:1753
  [9] #invoke_in_world#3
    @ .\essentials.jl:926 [inlined]
 [10] invoke_in_world
    @ .\essentials.jl:923 [inlined]
 [11] require(into::Module, mod::Symbol)
...
 [25] top-level scope
    @ stdin:3
in expression starting at C:\Users\Bernt\.julia\packages\DataInterpolations\2GasK\src\DataInterpolations.jl:1
in expression starting at stdin:3
Output is truncated. View as a scrollable element or open in a text editor. Adjust cell output settings...

```

There _is_ a `Project.toml` and `Manifest.toml` file in the actual directory of the Jupyter notebook, but I want to use the global \*.toml files – not the local ones!

This has worked in the past.

The above packages are not super large, so why is this error triggered on the above code, that used to run a week ago on Julia v10.3?

---

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**Author:** ![mkitti](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/mkitti/32/12459_2.png) [@mkitti](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/mkitti)\
**Post date:** [May 25, 2024, 3:49pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/modelingtoolkit-takes-forever-to-precompile-on-windows-11/114492/84 "2024-05-25T15:49:56Z")

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> [@BLI](#):
>
> I have deleted the `compiled` and `environments` directories of `.julia`, and then used `Pkg` to add only the above packages – nothing else.

Why did you delete `environments`? Please be careful when deleting directories.

> [@BLI](#):
>
> but I want to use the global \*.toml files – not the local ones!

The global TOML files were in the `environments` directory. They are gone now.

> [@BLI](#):
>
> ```julia
> - Run `Pkg.instantiate()` to install all recorded dependencies.
> 
> ```

Just do this.

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**Author:** ![BLI](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/bli/32/37206_2.png) [@BLI](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/BLI)\
**Post date:** [May 25, 2024, 4:00pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/modelingtoolkit-takes-forever-to-precompile-on-windows-11/114492/85 "2024-05-25T16:00:20Z")

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> [@mkitti](#):
>
> The global TOML files were in the `environments` directory. They are gone now.

Why are they gone? Yes, I deleted them [to make sure I have a clean install], but don’t they get re-created when I add the packages again and the packages get precompiled?? I added them before I ran the code that lead to “instantiation” request.

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**Author:** ![mkitti](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/mkitti/32/12459_2.png) [@mkitti](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/mkitti)\
**Post date:** [May 25, 2024, 4:05pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/modelingtoolkit-takes-forever-to-precompile-on-windows-11/114492/86 "2024-05-25T16:05:46Z")

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Apparently you forgot something or you deleted the packages directory as well? Anyways, just run `Pkg.instantiate()`. I’m really not sure why you do not want to do that. It will make sure that whatever you have in your TOML files is actually installed.

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**Author:** ![BLI](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/bli/32/37206_2.png) [@BLI](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/BLI)\
**Post date:** [May 25, 2024, 4:20pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/modelingtoolkit-takes-forever-to-precompile-on-windows-11/114492/87 "2024-05-25T16:20:44Z")

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I don’t mind doing `Pkg.instantiate`, but I need to know what the consequence is. My intention was to use the _global_ environment, and _not_ the local environment `*.toml` files [which uses Julia v.9.x, or something]. So if I had done `Pkg.instantiate`, that would have installed the packages listed in the _local_ `*.toml` files, and _that is not what I want_.

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**Author:** ![ufechner7](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/ufechner7/32/51363_2.png) [@ufechner7](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/ufechner7)\
**Post date:** [May 25, 2024, 4:22pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/modelingtoolkit-takes-forever-to-precompile-on-windows-11/114492/88 "2024-05-25T16:22:47Z")

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The effect is that all packages and their dependencies from `Package.toml` get installed if they are not yet installed.

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**Author:** ![BLI](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/bli/32/37206_2.png) [@BLI](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/BLI)\
**Post date:** [May 25, 2024, 4:26pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/modelingtoolkit-takes-forever-to-precompile-on-windows-11/114492/89 "2024-05-25T16:26:50Z")

</div>

The discussion seems to be spread over two threads. I first posted it here, but then deleted it and moved it to another thread. But the answers seems to pop up here 🙂

So let me cross-post my latest in the other thread (since most answers are here)…

OK – `Pkg.status()` tells me that I’m in the local directory!!

```julia
C:\Users\Bernt\OneDrive\...\Notebooks\Project.toml` (empty project)

```

This is so, even though I did not do `Pkg.activate(".")`!!

- So this implies that (at least when I run Jupyter Notebooks in VSCode), command `Pkg.activate(".")` is not needed – it will always first search for the `*.toml` files locally!
- If there is no `*.toml` files locally, it will go to the global environment and use the `*.toml` files there.

This also implies that I can not use my strategy of having multiple related notebooks in one directory where one of them uses a local environment! (Unless I explicitly specify the global environment in every notebook that do not use the local one?)

Perhaps I misunderstand the role of `Pkg.activate()`… I thought that was meant to specify what is the active environment, and if unspecified, the global environment is used. But instead, it seems to just be to activate the _creation_ of local `*.toml` files??

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![BLI](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/bli/32/37206_2.png) [@BLI](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/BLI)\
**Post date:** [May 25, 2024, 4:31pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/modelingtoolkit-takes-forever-to-precompile-on-windows-11/114492/90 "2024-05-25T16:31:19Z")

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So – I understand the role of `Pkg.instantiate` [I think], but I need to know _which `Project.toml` and `Manifest.toml` file is used_.

It seems like when I run Jupyter notebooks, then Julia defaults to looking in the directory where the notebook is located, and _not_ in the location of the _global_ `Project.toml` and `Manifest.toml` files [which I thought it would].

I thought that if I had not used `Pkg.activate("...")` to specify a location for the `Project.toml` and `Manifest.toml` files, then the global files would be used. But it seems to not be so.

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**Author:** ![mkitti](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/mkitti/32/12459_2.png) [@mkitti](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/mkitti)\
**Post date:** [May 25, 2024, 4:53pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/modelingtoolkit-takes-forever-to-precompile-on-windows-11/114492/91 "2024-05-25T16:53:42Z")

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Let’s discuss this `Pkg` usage in the other thread, please.

> [@Pkg & activation](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/pkg-activation/114723/3):
>
> OK – Pkg.status() tells me that I’m in the local directory!! C:\Users\Bernt\OneDrive\...\Notebooks\Project.toml` (empty project) This is so, even though I did not do Pkg.activate(".")!! So this implies that (at least when I run Jupyter Notebooks in VSCode), command Pkg.activate(".") is not needed – it will always first search for the \*.toml files locally! If there is no \*.toml files locally, it will go to the global environment and use the \*.toml files there. This also implies that I can no…

---

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**Author:** ![ChrisRackauckas](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/chrisrackauckas/32/77_2.png) [@ChrisRackauckas](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/ChrisRackauckas)\
**Post date:** [May 26, 2024, 2:03pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/modelingtoolkit-takes-forever-to-precompile-on-windows-11/114492/92 "2024-05-26T14:03:55Z")

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As an update, there was an issue in the linker that was causing this. [Set storage class of julia globals to dllimport on windows to avoid auto-import weirdness by gbaraldi · Pull Request #54572 · JuliaLang/julia · GitHub](https://github.com/JuliaLang/julia/pull/54572) fixes the issue, and there will be a hotfix in Julia which which should follow as a Julia v1.10.4 ASAP.

Note that this is a Windows-only bug.

The linker bug is triggered seemingly based on the size of the image being compiled. There were a few changes that might’ve put us into this regime, in particular the new ODE defaulting system [Redesign default ODE solver to be type-grounded and lazy by oscardssmith · Pull Request #2184 · SciML/OrdinaryDiffEq.jl · GitHub](https://github.com/SciML/OrdinaryDiffEq.jl/pull/2184). For these changes, we’ve disabled them on Windows in the latest releases [Disable Default solver on windows by oscardssmith · Pull Request #2224 · SciML/OrdinaryDiffEq.jl · GitHub](https://github.com/SciML/OrdinaryDiffEq.jl/pull/2224). There isn’t all that much we can do to workaround the bug beyond this, but this should hopefully make it trigger for less people less often.

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**Author:** ![Oscar\_Smith](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/oscar_smith/32/25343_2.png) [@Oscar\_Smith](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Oscar_Smith)\
**Post date:** [June 4, 2024, 9:30pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/modelingtoolkit-takes-forever-to-precompile-on-windows-11/114492/93 "2024-06-04T21:30:57Z")

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fixed for real in Julia [1.10.4](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julia-v1-10-4-has-been-released/115197)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![BLI](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/bli/32/37206_2.png) [@BLI](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/BLI)\
**Post date:** [June 5, 2024, 9:25am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/modelingtoolkit-takes-forever-to-precompile-on-windows-11/114492/94 "2024-06-05T09:25:44Z")

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All my listed packages above now precompile. I’ll test them, but first an ice cream excursion in the beautiful weather…

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![BLI](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/bli/32/37206_2.png) [@BLI](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/BLI)\
**Post date:** [June 5, 2024, 2:28pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/modelingtoolkit-takes-forever-to-precompile-on-windows-11/114492/95 "2024-06-05T14:28:29Z")

</div>

… and: confirming that ModelingToolkit works.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ChrisRackauckas](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/chrisrackauckas/32/77_2.png) [@ChrisRackauckas](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/ChrisRackauckas)\
**Post date:** [June 5, 2024, 2:49pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/modelingtoolkit-takes-forever-to-precompile-on-windows-11/114492/96 "2024-06-05T14:49:03Z")

</div>

Thanks everyone for helping us isolate this and coming together as a community, also thanks for the patience in getting the fix out there. This was a really rough one but given how smooth relatively it ended up going. This thread to me is a shining point of our community for how the Julia compiler team, the SciML crew, and community help all came together in what was both very scary but also very solvable!

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**Author:** ![BLI](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/bli/32/37206_2.png) [@BLI](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/BLI)\
**Post date:** [June 5, 2024, 3:23pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/modelingtoolkit-takes-forever-to-precompile-on-windows-11/114492/97 "2024-06-05T15:23:38Z")

</div>

And… thanks to Chris and others for “fumbling in the dark” initially but quickly focusing in on where the problem lay + the Julia developers who quickly responded with a fix.

I missed running ModelingToolkit and other tools for some days. Fortunately, there were other packages that still worked under Julia v10.3 so I had things to keep me busy.

To me, this shows how dependent I have become of Julia.

[Previous page](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/modelingtoolkit-takes-forever-to-precompile-on-windows-11/114492.md?page=4)