# Two activation methods differ on results

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/two-activation-methods-differ-on-results/124386>\
**Category:** General Usage\
**Tags:** pkg, project\
**Created:** [January 2, 2025, 7:55pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/two-activation-methods-differ-on-results/124386 "2025-01-02T19:55:26Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Ken\_Williams](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/ken_williams/32/5289_2.png) [@Ken\_Williams](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Ken_Williams)\
**Post date:** [January 2, 2025, 7:55pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/two-activation-methods-differ-on-results/124386/1 "2025-01-02T19:55:26Z")

</div>

When activating projects, I’m seeing some different results for a couple of methods I thought were supposed to be essentially the same.

This runs fine:

```bash
% julia --project=examples -e 'using MyProj'                  
julia --project=examples -e 'using MyProj' 3.72s user 1.88s system 133% cpu 4.181 total

```

This also runs fine:

```bash
% julia -e 'using Pkg; Pkg.activate("examples")'             
  Activating project at `~/git/MyProj.jl/examples`

```

This runs decidedly non-fine:

```bash
% julia -e 'using Pkg; Pkg.activate("examples"); using MyProj'
  Activating project at `~/git/MyProj.jl/examples`
ERROR: LoadError: MethodError: no method matching fit_string_in_field(::String, ::Int64; keep_escape_seq::Bool, printable_string_width::Int64)
Closest candidates are:
  fit_string_in_field(::AbstractString, ::Int64; add_continuation_char, add_space_in_continuation_char, continuation_char, crop_side, field_margin, keep_ansi, printable_string_width) got unsupported keyword argument "keep_escape_seq"
   @ StringManipulation ~/.julia/packages/StringManipulation/5Zfrz/src/crop.jl:96
Stacktrace:
  [1] kwerr(::@NamedTuple{keep_escape_seq::Bool, printable_string_width::Int64}, ::Function, ::String, ::Int64)
    @ Base ./error.jl:165
  [2] _text_print_table!(display::PrettyTables.Display, ptable::PrettyTables.ProcessedTable, table_str::Matrix{Vector{String}}, actual_columns_width::Vector{Int64}, continuation_row_line::Int64, num_lines_in_row::Vector{Int64}, num_lines_around_table::Int64, body_hlines::Vector{Int64}, body_hlines_format::NTuple{4, Char}, continuation_row_alignment::Symbol, ellipsis_line_skip::Int64, highlighters::Ref{Any}, hlines::Vector{Int64}, tf::PrettyTables.TextFormat, text_crayons::PrettyTables.TextCrayons{Crayons.Crayon, Crayons.Crayon}, vlines::Symbol)
    @ PrettyTables ~/.julia/packages/PrettyTables/oVZqx/src/backends/text/print_table.jl:216
  [3] _print_table_with_text_back_end(pinfo::PrettyTables.PrintInfo; alignment_anchor_fallback::Symbol, alignment_anchor_fallback_override::Dict{Int64, Symbol}, alignment_anchor_regex::Dict{Int64, Vector{Regex}}, autowrap::Bool, body_hlines::Vector{Int64}, body_hlines_format::Nothing, continuation_row_alignment::Symbol, crop::Symbol, crop_subheader::Bool, columns_width::Int64, display_size::Tuple{Int64, Int64}, equal_columns_width::Bool, ellipsis_line_skip::Int64, highlighters::Tuple{}, hlines::Nothing, linebreaks::Bool, maximum_columns_width::Int64, minimum_columns_width::Int64, newline_at_end::Bool, overwrite::Bool, reserved_display_lines::Int64, show_omitted_cell_summary::Bool, sortkeys::Bool, tf::PrettyTables.TextFormat, title_autowrap::Bool, title_same_width_as_table::Bool, vcrop_mode::Symbol, vlines::Nothing, border_crayon::Crayons.Crayon, header_crayon::Crayons.Crayon, omitted_cell_summary_crayon::Crayons.Crayon, row_label_crayon::Crayons.Crayon, row_label_header_crayon::Crayons.Crayon, row_number_header_crayon::Crayons.Crayon, subheader_crayon::Crayons.Crayon, text_crayon::Crayons.Crayon, title_crayon::Crayons.Crayon)
    @ PrettyTables ~/.julia/packages/PrettyTables/oVZqx/src/backends/text/text_backend.jl:371
  [4] _print_table_with_text_back_end(pinfo::PrettyTables.PrintInfo)
    @ PrettyTables ~/.julia/packages/PrettyTables/oVZqx/src/backends/text/text_backend.jl:8
  [5] _print_table(io::IO, data::Any; alignment::Symbol, backend::Val{:auto}, cell_alignment::Nothing, cell_first_line_only::Bool, compact_printing::Bool, formatters::Nothing, header::Tuple{Vector{String}}, header_alignment::Symbol, header_cell_alignment::Nothing, limit_printing::Bool, max_num_of_columns::Int64, max_num_of_rows::Int64, renderer::Symbol, row_labels::Nothing, row_label_alignment::Symbol, row_label_column_title::String, row_number_alignment::Symbol, row_number_column_title::String, show_header::Bool, show_row_number::Bool, show_subheader::Bool, title::String, title_alignment::Symbol, kwargs::@Kwargs{})
    @ PrettyTables ~/.julia/packages/PrettyTables/oVZqx/src/print.jl:1059
  [6] pretty_table(io::IO, data::Any; header::Nothing, kwargs::@Kwargs{})
...

```

(This goes on for quite a bit longer with more stack traces. I can give the full output if that would be helpful, but I didn’t want to paste it into this thread, is there a preferred pastebin?)

Have I missed some difference in project activation methods that would explain this? The second method is what I’m doing in a script so I want to figure out how to fix it.

Thanks.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![GunnarFarneback](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/gunnarfarneback/32/1827_2.png) [@GunnarFarneback](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/GunnarFarneback)\
**Post date:** [January 3, 2025, 8:04am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/two-activation-methods-differ-on-results/124386/2 "2025-01-03T08:04:06Z")

</div>

With `--project` the selected project is activated at the start of the session. With `Pkg.activate` the global environment is activated first before switching to the selected project. This doesn’t have to be a problem but if you have a `startup.jl` it might load incompatible versions of some packages before you switch to your project.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Ken\_Williams](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/ken_williams/32/5289_2.png) [@Ken\_Williams](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Ken_Williams)\
**Post date:** [January 6, 2025, 4:27pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/two-activation-methods-differ-on-results/124386/3 "2025-01-06T16:27:04Z")

</div>

Thanks @GunnarFarneback , I upgraded `StringManipulation` v0.3.4 ⇒ v0.4.0 in the global environment and that did the trick.

Is there a straightforward way for a project to query whether all its package requirements (including transitive requirements) are satisfied? If there were, I could add it to my script to make things obvious for some of its more casual users.