# Why is this dependency not precompiling?

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/why-is-this-dependency-not-precompiling/72990>\
**Category:** New to Julia\
**Created:** [December 12, 2021, 7:48pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/why-is-this-dependency-not-precompiling/72990 "2021-12-12T19:48:32Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 16\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Soldalma](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/soldalma/32/29388_2.png) [@Soldalma](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Soldalma)\
**Post date:** [December 12, 2021, 7:48pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/why-is-this-dependency-not-precompiling/72990/1 "2021-12-12T19:48:33Z")

</div>

Frequently I get messages saying that a dependency did not precompile. This has been going on for months. I did not mind because my code runs. Still, it would be good to understand what is wrong and fix the problem. Maybe somebody can help.

This is my Project.toml:

```julia
name = "BW"
uuid = "23dbc89a-8e17-4d23-a4a2-f1aee6f5fec8"
authors = ["Fernando Saldanha <fsaldanha@alum.mit.edu>"]
version = "0.1.0"

[deps]
BenchmarkTools = "6e4b80f9-dd63-53aa-95a3-0cdb28fa8baf"
CSV = "336ed68f-0bac-5ca0-87d4-7b16caf5d00b"
DataFrames = "a93c6f00-e57d-5684-b7b6-d8193f3e46c0"
Dates = "ade2ca70-3891-5945-98fb-dc099432e06a"
Debugger = "31a5f54b-26ea-5ae9-a837-f05ce5417438"
Distributions = "31c24e10-a181-5473-b8eb-7969acd0382f"
FillArrays = "1a297f60-69ca-5386-bcde-b61e274b549b"
Indicators = "70c4c096-89a6-5ec6-8236-da8aa3bd86fd"
Infiltrator = "5903a43b-9cc3-4c30-8d17-598619ec4e9b"
IterTools = "c8e1da08-722c-5040-9ed9-7db0dc04731e"
JuliaFormatter = "98e50ef6-434e-11e9-1051-2b60c6c9e899"
MicroCollections = "128add7d-3638-4c79-886c-908ea0c25c34"
OhMyREPL = "5fb14364-9ced-5910-84b2-373655c76a03"
PlotThemes = "ccf2f8ad-2431-5c83-bf29-c5338b663b6a"
PlotlyBase = "a03496cd-edff-5a9b-9e67-9cda94a718b5"
Plots = "91a5bcdd-55d7-5caf-9e0b-520d859cae80"
PrettyTables = "08abe8d2-0d0c-5749-adfa-8a2ac140af0d"
ProgressMeter = "92933f4c-e287-5a05-a399-4b506db050ca"
PyPlot = "d330b81b-6aea-500a-939a-2ce795aea3ee"
Revise = "295af30f-e4ad-537b-8983-00126c2a3abe"
StatsBase = "2913bbd2-ae8a-5f71-8c99-4fb6c76f3a91"
StatsPlots = "f3b207a7-027a-5e70-b257-86293d7955fd"
ThreadsX = "ac1d9e8a-700a-412c-b207-f0111f4b6c0d"

```

I get this message:

```julia
ERROR: The following 1 direct dependency 
failed to precompile:

BW [23dbc89a-8e17-4d23-a4a2-f1aee6f5fec8]
Failed to precompile BW [23dbc89a-8e17-4d23-a4a2-f1aee6f5fec8] to C:\Users\fsald\.julia\compiled\v1.7\BW\jl_1F73.tmp.      
┌ Warning: Package Base does not have Dates in its dependencies:
│ - If you have Base checked out for development and have
│ added Dates as a dependency but haven't updated your primary
│ environment's manifest file, try `Pkg.resolve()`.
│ - Otherwise you may need to report an issue with Base
└ Loading Dates into Base from project dependency, future warnings for Base are suppressed.
ERROR: LoadError: UndefVarError: include 
not defined
Stacktrace:
 [1] top-level scope
   @ c:\Dropbox\Code\Julia\bootstrapwalkforward\BW\src\BW.jl:33
 [2] include
   @ .\Base.jl:418 [inlined]
 [3] 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:1318
 [4] top-level scope
   @ none:1
 [5] eval
   @ .\boot.jl:373 [inlined]
 [6] eval(x::Expr)
   @ Base.MainInclude .\client.jl:453    
 [7] top-level scope
   @ none:1
in expression starting at c:\Dropbox\Code\Julia\bootstrapwalkforward\BW\src\BW.jl:33
Stacktrace:
 [1] pkgerror(msg::String)
   @ Pkg.Types C:\Users\fsald\AppData\Local\Programs\Julia-1.7.0\share\julia\stdlib\v1.7\Pkg\src\Types.jl:68
 [2] precompile(ctx::Pkg.Types.Context; internal_call::Bool, strict::Bool, warn_loaded::Bool, kwargs::Base.Pairs{Symbol, Union{}, Tuple{}, NamedTuple{(), Tuple{}}}) @ Pkg.API C:\Users\fsald\AppData\Local\Programs\Julia-1.7.0\share\julia\stdlib\v1.7\Pkg\src\API.jl:1362
 [3] precompile
   @ C:\Users\fsald\AppData\Local\Programs\Julia-1.7.0\share\julia\stdlib\v1.7\Pkg\src\API.jl:1013 [inlined]
 [4] #precompile#220
   @ C:\Users\fsald\AppData\Local\Programs\Julia-1.7.0\share\julia\stdlib\v1.7\Pkg\src\API.jl:1011 [inlined]
 [5] precompile()
   @ Pkg.API C:\Users\fsald\AppData\Local\Programs\Julia-1.7.0\share\julia\stdlib\v1.7\Pkg\src\API.jl:1011
 [6] top-level scope
   @ REPL[4]:1

```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jacobusmmsmit](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/jacobusmmsmit/32/217669_2.png) [@jacobusmmsmit](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/jacobusmmsmit)\
**Post date:** [December 12, 2021, 7:57pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/why-is-this-dependency-not-precompiling/72990/2 "2021-12-12T19:57:40Z")

</div>

What happens when you run `PKG.resolve()`? Your problem seems slightly more complicated but if this doesn’t fix it you could try deleting the `Manifest` and the `[deps]` part of the `Project.toml` and adding the packages you need again through `Pkg`.

---

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**Author:** ![Soldalma](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/soldalma/32/29388_2.png) [@Soldalma](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Soldalma)\
**Post date:** [December 13, 2021, 3:58am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/why-is-this-dependency-not-precompiling/72990/3 "2021-12-13T03:58:01Z")

</div>

Pkg.resolve() did not help. I deleted Manifest.toml and the deps section of Project.toml. Then I added DataFrames.jl and got thevsame type of message ai posted. BW.jl did not precompile.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Lilith](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/lilith/32/27492_2.png) [@Lilith](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Lilith)\
**Post date:** [December 13, 2021, 4:12am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/why-is-this-dependency-not-precompiling/72990/4 "2021-12-13T04:12:50Z")

</div>

What does your global environment look like? What if you try in an empty environment?

---

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**Author:** ![nilshg](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/nilshg/32/2283_2.png) [@nilshg](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/nilshg)\
**Post date:** [December 13, 2021, 6:26am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/why-is-this-dependency-not-precompiling/72990/5 "2021-12-13T06:26:55Z")

</div>

What is line 33 in BW.jl?

---

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**Author:** ![Soldalma](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/soldalma/32/29388_2.png) [@Soldalma](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Soldalma)\
**Post date:** [December 13, 2021, 10:09am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/why-is-this-dependency-not-precompiling/72990/6 "2021-12-13T10:09:16Z")

</div>

Line 33 in BW.jl:

include(“./Trading.jl”);

The file Trading.jl is very short:

# $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ Trading $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

println(“Loading Trading”)

function tr\_sign(x::Vector{Float64})::Vector{Float64}

```
[sign(t) for t in x]

```

end

function tr\_positive\_sign(x::Vector{Float64})::Vector{Float64}

```
[max(sign(t), 0) for t in x]

```

end

function tr\_negative\_sign(x::Vector{Float64})::Vector{Float64}

```
[min(sign(t), 0) for t in x]

```

end

---

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**Author:** ![nilshg](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/nilshg/32/2283_2.png) [@nilshg](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/nilshg)\
**Post date:** [December 13, 2021, 10:27am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/why-is-this-dependency-not-precompiling/72990/7 "2021-12-13T10:27:34Z")

</div>

That’s very odd, as the error suggests your BW module is failing to do `include("./Trading.jl")` because `include` is not defined, but `include` should always be available from `Base`.

What happens if you change `BW.jl` by just copying the three function definitions directly into the file?

(Incidentally, those function definitions seem to be redundant, as all you’re doing is applying scalar `sign` and `max`/`min` functions to a vector of Floats, for which you should just use broadcasting - i.e. `tr_sign(x)` is the same as just doing `sign.(x)`, and the other two functions are just `max.(sign.(t), 0)` and `min.(sign.(t), 0)`, respectively.)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Soldalma](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/soldalma/32/29388_2.png) [@Soldalma](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Soldalma)\
**Post date:** [December 13, 2021, 10:28am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/why-is-this-dependency-not-precompiling/72990/8 "2021-12-13T10:28:32Z")

</div>

Beginner’s question: How do I find out how my global environment looks like?

In an empty environment the file `BW.jl` would probably not run, since it needs packages like DataFrames.jl, Distributions.jl and others.

Exploring a bit, I clicked on `Julia env:BW` at the bottom of the VSCode screen. A window with `Select Environment` popped open. I selected `v1.7 C:\Users\fsald\.julia\environments\v1.7`. Another window popped up asking if I wanted to change the environment. I clicked on `Change Julia environment`. Now at the bottom I see `Julia env v1.7` instead of `Julia env:BW`. However, clicking on `]` in the Terminal I get `(BW) Pkg` which leaves it unclear in which environment I am. Typing `st` it becomes clear I am still in the `BW` environment. So I am not sure how do I try it in an empty environment.

I exited VSCode and restarted it and came back to exactly the same status: `]` shows `Julia env:BW` but at the bottom of the screen I see `Julia env:v1.7`

---

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**Author:** ![nilshg](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/nilshg/32/2283_2.png) [@nilshg](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/nilshg)\
**Post date:** [December 13, 2021, 10:31am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/why-is-this-dependency-not-precompiling/72990/9 "2021-12-13T10:31:02Z")

</div>

You can do `]activate` without any arguments to activate the default environment.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Soldalma](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/soldalma/32/29388_2.png) [@Soldalma](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Soldalma)\
**Post date:** [December 13, 2021, 11:20am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/why-is-this-dependency-not-precompiling/72990/10 "2021-12-13T11:20:48Z")

</div>

I replaced the include with the code, as you suggested. The first error message was exactly as before:

```julia
pkg> add Distributions.jl
    Updating registry at `C:\Users\fsald\.julia\registries\General`
    Updating git-repo `https://github.com/JuliaRegistries/General.git`
   Resolving package versions...
  No Changes to `C:\Dropbox\Code\Julia\bootstrapwalkforward\BW\Project.toml`
  No Changes to `C:\Dropbox\Code\Julia\bootstrapwalkforward\BW\Manifest.toml`
Precompiling project...
  ✗ BW
  0 dependencies successfully precompiled in 22 seconds (210 already precompiled)       
  1 dependency errored. To see a full report either run `import Pkg; Pkg.precompile()` or load the package

```

Then I ran

```julia
import Pkg
Pkg.precompile()

```

and VSCode froze. I restarted VSCode and got this message:

```julia

 Session contents restored from 12/13/2021 at 7:36:07 AM 

ERROR: LoadError: IOError: connect: no such file or directory (ENOENT)
Stacktrace:
 [1] wait_connected(x::Base.PipeEndpoint)
   @ Sockets C:\Users\fsald\AppData\Local\Programs\Julia-1.7.0\share\julia\stdlib\v1.7\Sockets\src\Sockets.jl:532
 [2] connect
   @ C:\Users\fsald\AppData\Local\Programs\Julia-1.7.0\share\julia\stdlib\v1.7\Sockets\src\Sockets.jl:567 [inlined]
 [3] connect
   @ C:\Users\fsald\AppData\Local\Programs\Julia-1.7.0\share\julia\stdlib\v1.7\Sockets\src\PipeServer.jl:97 [inlined]
 [4] serve(args::String; is_dev::Bool, crashreporting_pipename::String)
   @ VSCodeServer c:\Users\fsald\.vscode\extensions\julialang.language-julia-1.5.6\scripts\packages\VSCodeServer\src\VSCodeServer.jl:100
 [5] top-level scope
   @ c:\Users\fsald\.vscode\extensions\julialang.language-julia-1.5.6\scripts\terminalserver\terminalserver.jl:45
in expression starting at c:\Users\fsald\.vscode\extensions\julialang.language-julia-1.5.6\scripts\terminalserver\terminalserver.jl:24
julia> 

```

I will rewrite the tr\_sign functions as you suggested. One of them is passed to a struct that is an argument of a function, so I like having nice names for them. Could pass a lambda as an argument instead but that would obscure the code.

In any case, I tried completely eliminating all three functions from the code and passing

```julia
x -> max.(sign.(t), 0)

```

to the struct. Restarted VSCode, tried again `add Distributions.jl` and got the same message.

Giving up on `import Pkg` I used the `]` key and tried `precompile`. Got this message:

```julia
(BW) pkg> precompile
Precompiling project...
  ✗ BW
  0 dependencies successfully precompiled in 18 seconds (210 already precompiled)

ERROR: The following 1 direct dependency failed to precompile:

BW [23dbc89a-8e17-4d23-a4a2-f1aee6f5fec8]

Failed to precompile BW [23dbc89a-8e17-4d23-a4a2-f1aee6f5fec8] to C:\Users\fsald\.julia\compiled\v1.7\BW\jl_3392.tmp.
┌ Warning: Package Base does not have Dates in its dependencies:
│ - If you have Base checked out for development and have
│ added Dates as a dependency but haven't updated your primary
│ environment's manifest file, try `Pkg.resolve()`.
│ - Otherwise you may need to report an issue with Base
└ Loading Dates into Base from project dependency, future warnings for Base are suppressed.
ERROR: LoadError: UndefVarError: include not defined
Stacktrace:
 [1] top-level scope
   @ c:\Dropbox\Code\Julia\bootstrapwalkforward\BW\src\BW.jl:57
 [2] include
   @ .\Base.jl:418 [inlined]
 [3] 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:1318
 [4] top-level scope
   @ none:1
 [5] eval
   @ .\boot.jl:373 [inlined]
 [6] eval(x::Expr)
   @ Base.MainInclude .\client.jl:453
 [7] top-level scope
   @ none:1
in expression starting at c:\Dropbox\Code\Julia\bootstrapwalkforward\BW\src\BW.jl:57

```

Now the problem is in line 57 of `BW.jl`, which is another `include` statement.

So it looks like the problem is really with `include` statements. I guess if I inlined all the included code and eliminated all `include` statements I could get `BW.jl` to precompile.

The warning message about package `Base` not having `Dates` among its dependencies is also mysterious.

Oddly, the code runs despite all of the above.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Soldalma](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/soldalma/32/29388_2.png) [@Soldalma](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Soldalma)\
**Post date:** [December 13, 2021, 11:30am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/why-is-this-dependency-not-precompiling/72990/11 "2021-12-13T11:30:08Z")

</div>

I just did that. Saw that there were two packages in the `deps` section of `Project.toml`. Deleted those two lines. Restarted VSCode. Did `]activate` and then `st`. The project was empty. Then did `add Distributions.jl`. Precompilation was successful. But `BW.jl`, which was the problem, was not involved in any way, so maybe this is not a surprise.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![nilshg](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/nilshg/32/2283_2.png) [@nilshg](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/nilshg)\
**Post date:** [December 13, 2021, 11:43am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/why-is-this-dependency-not-precompiling/72990/12 "2021-12-13T11:43:39Z")

</div>

This is really odd - it seems to me like you’re doing something to break base Julia, i.e. `Base`, as somehow `include` isn’t working and there’s also the warning about `Base` not having `Dates` in its dependencies.

What happens when you replace `include` with `Base.MainInclude.include`?

Also are you using the name `Base` for something in your code?

---

<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:** [December 13, 2021, 2:17pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/why-is-this-dependency-not-precompiling/72990/13 "2021-12-13T14:17:02Z")

</div>

I would put all your code in a git repo and upload it to e.g. GitHub so that people can check it out properly.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Soldalma](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/soldalma/32/29388_2.png) [@Soldalma](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Soldalma)\
**Post date:** [December 13, 2021, 4:03pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/why-is-this-dependency-not-precompiling/72990/14 "2021-12-13T16:03:05Z")

</div>

Base.include is working. If it were not my code would not run. Most of my code is in included files. BW.jl basically calls functions that are in included files. The program runs for several minutes (lots of bootstrapping), generates several charts and DataFrames, prints what I ask it to print on the screen, etc… The only problem is it tells me it does not precompile BW.jl. But that does not seem to have any effect on computations.

I replaced all `include` statements with `Base.MainInclude.include` and that seems to have solved the problem. After that I added packages that were already in the project and also added a new one (Weave.jl) that was not. In both cases there were no messages saying that precompilation failed.

Besides the new statements with `Base.MainInclude.include` I have one line that has `Base` in it:

param\_tuples = collect(Base.product(values(parameter\_lists)…))

Until recently that line had `Iterators` where `Base` is now. I discovered that `Iterators.jl` was deprecated and replaced the package. The `product` command does the same thing in both cases. I believe the precompilation problem existed before I replaced `Iterators` with `Base`.

In any case, many thanks for helping me solve the problem.

BTW, what is the problem with using just `include` instead of `Base.MainInclude.include`?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![nilshg](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/nilshg/32/2283_2.png) [@nilshg](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/nilshg)\
**Post date:** [December 13, 2021, 4:07pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/why-is-this-dependency-not-precompiling/72990/15 "2021-12-13T16:07:27Z")

</div>

It shouldn’t be a problem, that’s why I asked whether you are doing anything unusual with `Base` - as Kristoffer said it’s hard to tell without seeing your whole code what is going wrong here.

(As an aside, `Iterators` was replaced by `IterTools`, so you might want to consider using that)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Soldalma](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/soldalma/32/29388_2.png) [@Soldalma](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Soldalma)\
**Post date:** [December 13, 2021, 8:27pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/why-is-this-dependency-not-precompiling/72990/16 "2021-12-13T20:27:14Z")

</div>

IterTools.product() did not work. Maybe it had a different syntax. After investigating a bit on Google I found Base.product() does the same thing as Iterations.product(), actually maybe better.