ShareAdd.jl

This Julia package is intended for interactive use, and it's aim is to help you in reducing clutter in your main shared environment, and thus avoid package incompatibility problems. It exports two macros: @usingany and @usingtmp, envisioned for two different workflows. The package also exports several utility functions.

@usingany macro

This macro makes package(s) available, if they are not already, and loads them with using keyword.

If a package is available in an environment in LOAD_PATH, that's OK.
If a package is available in a shared environment, this environment will be pushed into LOAD_PATH.
Otherwise if it can be installed, you will be prompted to select an environment to install the package(s).
If the package is not listed in any registry, an error will be thrown.

# simplest usage case
@usingany SomePackage

@usingany usage example

Let's assume, while working on your package MyPackage, we temporarily need packages TOML, Plots, and Chairmarks. However, they shouldn't be added permanently to your package dependencies. Furthermore, from the package BenchmarkTools we need only the macro @btime and the function save. We also need Unitful, which is already an installed dependence of MyPackage.

TOML is available in the stdlib, Plots and BenchmarkTools you already put into a shared environment @utilities, and Chairmarks is not on your computer yet.

Now, first, you add ShareAdd to your "main" (standard) enviroment, making it available at all times:

]
(YourEnv) pkg> activate 
  Activating project at `~/.julia/environments/v1.10`

(@v1.10) pkg> add ShareAdd
(...)
(@v1.10) pkg> activate . # back to your environment
(YourEnv) pkg>

By that occasion you may also want to clean your standard environment: It is generally not recommended having a lot of packages there.

Now, the only thing you need is to type into REPL (or adding to your script) the following lines:

using ShareAdd
@usingany Unitful, TOML, Plots, Chairmarks
@usingany BenchmarkTools: @btime, save

As Chairmarks was not installed yet, you will be asked as to where to install it. You may e.g. add it to your existing @utilities shared environment, or let create a new environment @Chairmarks and put it there.

Afrerwards @utilities (and @Chairmarks, if created) will be added to LOAD_PATH, making their packages available.

Finally, the macros will execute using Unitful, TOML, Plots, Chairmarks resp. using BenchmarkTools: @btime, save - and that's it. Enjoy!

@usingtmp macro

This macro activates a temporary environment, optionally installs packages into it, and loads them with using keyword.

If current environment is already a temporary one, environment is not changed.
If current env was a project (not package!), a temporary env will be activated.
If current env was a package (under development), e.g. MyPkg, a temporary env will be activated, AND MyPkg will be dev-ed in that temporary env.

Thу last one is actually the interesting case, as you can continue to work on MyPkg, while temporarily having additional packages available.

If @usingtmp was called with arguments, the corresponding packages will be installed into that temporary env, and imported with using keyword.

using ShareAdd
@usingtmp Foo, Bar
@usingtmp Baz: quux

Other functions and usage cases

The functions list_shared_pkgs() and list_shared_envs() do what their names say.

list_shared_pkgs() # return names of packages in all shared envs except those in the the "main" one

list_shared_pkgs("@SomeEnv") # return packages in the shared env "SomeEnv"

list_shared_envs() # names of all shared envs

list_shared_envs("SomePkg") # envs which contain the package "SomePkg"

The function make_importable also does what it says. It is used internally by @usingany, but it can also be used separately in special cases, e.g. if you need using A as B syntax, or want to import a package via import statement instead of using:

using ShareAdd
make_importable("Foo")
import Foo

It is possible to first update the packages and/or environments by setting the corresponding kwarg. E.g. the following would update the packages Pkg1, Pkg2 in their shared environments:

using ShareAdd
@usingany update_pkg = true Pkg1, Pkg2

For more usage options see @usingany docs .

ShareAdd.jl

@usingany macro

@usingany usage example

@usingtmp macro

Other functions and usage cases

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Copyright and License