# Plots breaks incremental compilation

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/plots-breaks-incremental-compilation/96990>\
**Category:** General Usage\
**Tags:** precompilation, plots\
**Created:** [April 2, 2023, 11:08pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/plots-breaks-incremental-compilation/96990 "2023-04-02T23:08:40Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![rafael.guerra](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/rafael.guerra/32/216610_2.png) [@rafael.guerra](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/rafael.guerra)\
**Post date:** [April 2, 2023, 11:08pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/plots-breaks-incremental-compilation/96990/1 "2023-04-02T23:08:40Z")

</div>

I haven’t managed to produce a MWE yet but I’m hoping someone has encountered a similar problem and can advise.

Basically I am writing a PackageB that uses RecipesBase, and a PackageA that uses both PackageB and Plots.jl (pythonplot backend).

When I do `using PackageA` the precompilation throws error `Evaluation into the closed module Plots breaks incremental compilation` as per stack trace below, and I don’t know what to do. If I run the code line by line in the PackageA module which uses PackageB and Plots, then everything is fine…

Any advice is welcome.  
Thanks.

> **Stack trace error**
>
> ```julia
> julia> using PackageA
> [Info: Precompiling PackageA [536ffa49-1ac4-47b0-895d-f0a44f6a6d19]
> ERROR: LoadError: Evaluation into the closed module `Plots` breaks incremental compilation because the side effects will not be permanent. This is likely due to some other module mutating `Plots` with `eval` during precompilation - don't do this.
> Stacktrace:
> [1] eval
> @ .\boot.jl:368 [inlined]
> [2] _pre_imports(pkg::Plots.PythonPlotBackend)
> @ Plots C:\Users\jrafa\.julia\packages\Plots\B5j7d\src\backends.jl:380
> [3] _initialize_backend(pkg::Plots.PythonPlotBackend)
> @ Plots C:\Users\jrafa\.julia\packages\Plots\B5j7d\src\backends.jl:964
> [4] backend(pkg::Plots.PythonPlotBackend)
> @ Plots C:\Users\jrafa\.julia\packages\Plots\B5j7d\src\backends.jl:266
> [5] #pythonplot#316
> @ C:\Users\jrafa\.julia\packages\Plots\B5j7d\src\backends.jl:87 [inlined]
> [6] top-level scope
> @ c:\Users\jrafa\OneDrive\Julia_Code\PackageA\src\PackageA.jl:17
> [7] include
> @ .\Base.jl:419 [inlined]
> [8] include_package_for_output(pkg::Base.PkgId, input::String, depot_path::Vector{String}, dl_load_path::Vector{String}, load_path::Vector{String}, concrete_deps::Vector{Pair{Base.PkgId, UInt64}}, source::Nothing)
> @ Base .\loading.jl:1554
> [9] top-level scope
> @ stdin:1
> in expression starting at c:\Users\jrafa\OneDrive\Julia_Code\PackageA\src\PackageA.jl:8
> in expression starting at stdin:1
> ERROR: Failed to precompile PackageA [536ffa49-1ac4-47b0-895d-f0a44f6a6d19] to C:\Users\jrafa\.julia\compiled\v1.8\PackageA\jl_F2E5.tmp.
> Stacktrace:
> [1] error(s::String)
> @ Base .\error.jl:35
> [2] compilecache(pkg::Base.PkgId, path::String, internal_stderr::IO, internal_stdout::IO, keep_loaded_modules::Bool) 
> @ Base .\loading.jl:1707
> [3] compilecache
> @ .\loading.jl:1651 [inlined]
> [4] _require(pkg::Base.PkgId)
> @ Base .\loading.jl:1337
> [5] _require_prelocked(uuidkey::Base.PkgId)
> @ Base .\loading.jl:1200
> [6] macro expansion
> @ .\loading.jl:1180 [inlined]
> [7] macro expansion
> @ .\lock.jl:223 [inlined]
> [8] require(into::Module, mod::Symbol)
> @ Base .\loading.jl:1144
> [9] eval
> @ .\boot.jl:368 [inlined]
> [10] eval
> @ .\Base.jl:65 [inlined]
> [11] repleval(m::Module, code::Expr, #unused#::String)
> @ VSCodeServer c:\Users\jrafa\.vscode\extensions\julialang.language-julia-1.38.2\scripts\packages\VSCodeServer\src\repl.jl:222
> [12] (::VSCodeServer.var"#107#109"{Module, Expr, REPL.LineEditREPL, REPL.LineEdit.Prompt})()
> @ VSCodeServer c:\Users\jrafa\.vscode\extensions\julialang.language-julia-1.38.2\scripts\packages\VSCodeServer\src\repl.jl:186
> [13] with_logstate(f::Function, logstate::Any)
> @ Base.CoreLogging .\logging.jl:511
> [14] with_logger
> @ .\logging.jl:623 [inlined]
> [15] (::VSCodeServer.var"#106#108"{Module, Expr, REPL.LineEditREPL, REPL.LineEdit.Prompt})()
> @ VSCodeServer c:\Users\jrafa\.vscode\extensions\julialang.language-julia-1.38.2\scripts\packages\VSCodeServer\src\repl.jl:187
> [16] #invokelatest#2
> @ .\essentials.jl:729 [inlined]
> [17] invokelatest(::Any)
> @ Base .\essentials.jl:726
> [18] macro expansion
> @ c:\Users\jrafa\.vscode\extensions\julialang.language-julia-1.38.2\scripts\packages\VSCodeServer\src\eval.jl:34 [inlined]
> [19] (::VSCodeServer.var"#61#62")()
> @ VSCodeServer .\task.jl:484
> 
> ```

---

<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:** [April 3, 2023, 2:07pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/plots-breaks-incremental-compilation/96990/2 "2023-04-03T14:07:18Z")

</div>

Plots.jl does a lot of weird/questionable stuff with evaluating things all over the place. Here is is evalling some other macro inside this function:

> <https://github.com/JuliaPlots/Plots.jl/blob/4400dbafa9552a3e6645bb053732ff74bd9ac11d/src/backends.jl#L380>

I guess it would be interesting to know what is happening at

` @ c:\Users\jrafa\OneDrive\Julia_Code\PackageA\src\PackageA.jl:17`

in your package that ends up calling this.

But I would also open an issue on the Plots.jl repo as this seems very brittle.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![rafael.guerra](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/rafael.guerra/32/216610_2.png) [@rafael.guerra](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/rafael.guerra)\
**Post date:** [April 3, 2023, 5:07pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/plots-breaks-incremental-compilation/96990/3 "2023-04-03T17:07:47Z")

</div>

@kristoffer.carlsson, thanks for your expert comments.

As requested, line 17 of PackageA is:

```julia
pythonplot(dpi=100)

```

I don’t have enough understanding of what’s going on yet to open an issue on the Plots.jl repo, but I will if I can’t get this resolved.

---

<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:** [April 3, 2023, 6:25pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/plots-breaks-incremental-compilation/96990/4 "2023-04-03T18:25:27Z")

</div>

And are you calling that at top level in your package while it is getting precompiled, or something like that?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![rafael.guerra](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/rafael.guerra/32/216610_2.png) [@rafael.guerra](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/rafael.guerra)\
**Post date:** [April 3, 2023, 7:13pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/plots-breaks-incremental-compilation/96990/5 "2023-04-03T19:13:56Z")

</div>

> [@kristoffer.carlsson](#):
>
> And are you calling that at top level

I think so.

The simplified structure of PackageA is approximately as follows:

```julia
module PackageA

using PackageB
using Plots
pythonplot(dpi=100)

# several include() of files with functions
# export some function

end

```

From the REPL doing `using PackageB` is fine.

However, `using PackageA` produces error indicated above.

---

<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:** [April 3, 2023, 7:19pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/plots-breaks-incremental-compilation/96990/6 "2023-04-03T19:19:48Z")

</div>

Why are you calling `pythonplot(dpi=100)` there? Something like that will not survive until the time you load the package. If anything, it seems you would want to do

```julia
function __init__ ()
    pythonplot(dpi=100)
end

```

to have that executed when the package is loaded.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![rafael.guerra](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/rafael.guerra/32/216610_2.png) [@rafael.guerra](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/rafael.guerra)\
**Post date:** [April 3, 2023, 7:40pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/plots-breaks-incremental-compilation/96990/7 "2023-04-03T19:40:00Z")

</div>

> [@kristoffer.carlsson](#):
>
> Why are you calling `pythonplot(dpi=100)` there?

Because I didn’t know any better. 😓

Thank you for your time and know-how 🧠

**NB:**  
_[linking here](https://docs.julialang.org/en/v1/manual/modules/#Module-initialization-and-precompilation) the relevant section of the manual_