SystemImageBuilder

Julia 0.4 adds the feature of precompiled, cached packages. SystemImageBuilder is thus no longer needed, and therefore deprecated.

SystemImageBuilder is a wrapper around the build_sysimg utility function. It allows to build a sys.ji image of all installed packages, skipping the packages which are on a curated exclude list themselves or depend on such an excluded package.

Installing

As the list of packages changes frequently, for now it is recommended to install the latest master directly:

Pkg.clone("https://github.com/rened/SystemImageBuilder.jl.git")

On OSX and Linux you should be all set, on Windows you might need to install gcc:

Pkg.add("WinRPM")
using WinRPM
WinRPM.install("gcc")

Using

Usage is simple:

using SystemImageBuilder
buildimage()

If you want to first test the image without overwriting the default (recommended), you can specify a targetpath:

buildimage(targetpath = "/tmp/mytest/sys")

And then restart Julia with

julia -J /tmp/mytest/sys.ji

In case you did not specify a custom targetpath, thus overwriting the default, and want to remove any pre-compiled code, you can run:

resetimage()

Include / Exclude packages

SystemImageBuilder.defaultexclude contains a set of packages which are known not to be pre-compilable. Additional packages can be skipped by specifying the exclude parameter:

buildimage(exclude = [SystemImageBuilder.defaultexclude; "SomePackage"])

If you think a certain package should be part of the default exclusion list, please file an issue!

You can force the inclusion of a package by specifying the include parameter:

buildimage(include = ["SomePackage"])

Updating

When you change the set of installed packages, like with Pkg.add() or Pkg.update(), you will need to run buildimage() again.