How to use julia's PackageCompiler to build a quick launch environment for PlotStats?

Question

I want to use 'DataFrames,CSV,StatsPlots' packages without waiting time after reboot machine, I'm trying to use PackageCompiler, but the README or help is hard to understand.

using using PackageCompiler
syso, sys = compile_incremental(:DataFrames,:CSV,:StatsPlots)

Well, I'm afraid to destroy the system image, so, at first, I don't use the 'force=true' option. It shows error messages:

...
Resolving package versions... 
ERROR: LoadError: Unsatisfiable requirements detected for package WinRPM [c17dfb99]:
 WinRPM [c17dfb99] log:                                                                                                                                             
 ├─possible versions are: [0.3.3, 0.4.0-0.4.3] or uninstalled                     
 ├─restricted by compatibility requirements with PackageCompiler [9b87118b] to versions: [0.3.3, 0.4.0-0.4.3]                                                       
 │ └─PackageCompiler [9b87118b] log: 
 │   ├─possible versions are: [0.5.0-0.5.1, 0.6.0-0.6.5] or uninstalled
 │   └─restricted to versions * by an explicit requirement, leaving only versions [0.5.0-0.5.1, 0.6.0-0.6.5]
 ├─restricted by compatibility requirements with Compat [34da2185] to versions: 0.4.3 or uninstalled, leaving only versions: 0.4.3
 │ └─Compat [34da2185] log:
 │   ├─possible versions are: [1.0.0-1.0.1, 1.1.0, 1.2.0, 1.3.0, 1.4.0, 1.5.0-1.5.1, 2.0.0, 2.1.0, 2.2.0, 3.0.0, 3.1.0, 3.2.0] or uninstalled
 │   └─restricted to versions 3.2.0 by an explicit requirement, leaving only versions 3.2.0
 └─restricted by compatibility requirements with HTTPClient [0862f596] to versions: uninstalled — no versions left
   └─HTTPClient [0862f596] log:
     ├─possible versions are: 0.2.1 or uninstalled
     └─restricted by compatibility requirements with Compat [34da2185] to versions: uninstalled
       └─Compat [34da2185] log: see above

Answer 1

It seems workable by PackageCompilerX. At first, the package's version is very sensitive, it require correct version to let everything work.

Here are two of my testing environment for julia 1.3.1

• debian: apt -t unstable install julia libjulia-dev
• archlinux: pacman -S julia

check Julia's version(PackageCompilerX only work after 1.3.1)

julia> versioninfo()
Julia Version 1.3.1
Platform Info:
  OS: Linux (x86_64-linux-gnu)
  CPU: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU @ 2.20GHz

Add PackageCompilerX and all package which you want to plot to repository

pkg> add https://github.com/KristofferC/PackageCompilerX.jl
pkg> status
Status `~/.julia/environments/v1.3/Project.toml`
...

Copy system's Project.toml to current directory for customize your development environment, use editor(here vim) to remove some package which can't compile or not required.

shell> rm Project.toml
shell> cp ~/.julia/environments/v1.3/Project.toml .
shell> vim Project.toml

activate local package environment

julia> using PackageCompilerX
pkg> activate .
pkg> status  # double check all package which you want have installed
    Status `~/prj/julia/Project.toml`
  [336ed68f] CSV v0.5.22
  [a93c6f00] DataFrames v0.20.0
  ...

generated sybmol array automatically in julia prompt

s=split(read("Project.toml", String),"\n")
pkgs=Symbol[]
for i in s
  if (length(i) > 0) && !(i[1] in ['[','#'])
    push!(pkgs, Symbol(split(i," ")[1]))
  end
end

show pkgs

julia> pkgs
10-element Array{Symbol,1}:
 :CSV
 :DataFrames
 ...

compile it and output to "dev.so" by

julia> create_sysimage(pkgs, sysimage_path="dev.so")

exit julia, and re-launch julia by

julia -J dev.so

Benchmark these two launch method and result:

time julia -q -e 'using Plots,UnicodePlots; unicodeplots(); display(plot(sin))'
# result: 35.175s
time julia -J dev.so -q -e 'using Plots,UnicodePlots; unicodeplots(); display(plot(sin))'
# result: 15.2365s