PkgFix

This package is a wrapper over some of the commonly used parts of Base.Pkg. Its purpose is to improve the behavior of these function to make installing packages, particularly those not listed in METADATA, easier.

Installation

Due to deficiancies in Julia's package manager (which this package attempts to correct), PkgFix cannot be installed via the REQUIRE file. Instead, any package using it should put the following at the top of the package's build.jl file:

if !isdir(joinpath(Pkg.dir(), "PkgFix"))
  Pkg.clone("https://github.com/OptimalDesignLab/PkgFix.jl.git")
end

using PkgFix  # from now on, use PkgFix instead of Pkg for everything

Usage

The main purpose of this package is to make each operation do exactly what its name implies, and nothing more. For example, while Pkg.clone clones a package and attempts to install its dependencies, PkgFix.clone clones the repository only. This scheme avoids certain kinds of problems that can occur because Pkg.clone immediately attempts to resolve dependencies without giving the user a chance to specify what version of the package to build.

The list of functions with behavior different than Pkg (see the docstrings in the code or use the REPL help mode):

• add
• clone
• checkout
• pin
• free

Note that some functions listed above (such as pin and free) are incompatible with their counterparts in Pkg. For this reason, it is recommended to use PkgFix exclusively for package operations. Note that this is not incompatible with using REQUIRE files to install package. The primary aim of PkgFix is to install packages that cannot be installed through a REQUIRE file.

Functions that have the same behavior as those in Pkg

• status
• rm
• installed
• resolve
• build
• dir

See the Pkg documentation for those functions.