6. Apps

Apps are Julia packages that are intended to be run as "standalone programs" (by e.g. typing the name of the app in the terminal possibly together with some arguments or flags/options). This is in contrast to most Julia packages that are used as "libraries" and are loaded by other files or in the Julia REPL.

Creating a Julia app

A Julia app is structured similar to a standard Julia library with the following additions:

• A @main entry point in the package module (see the Julia help on @main for details)
• An [apps] section in the Project.toml file listing the executable names that the package provides.

A very simple example of an app that prints the reversed input arguments would be:

# src/MyReverseApp.jl
module MyReverseApp

function (@main)(ARGS)
    for arg in ARGS
        print(stdout, reverse(arg), " ")
    end
    return
end

end # module

# Project.toml

# standard fields here

[apps]
reverse = {}

The empty table {} is to allow for giving metadata about the app.

After installing this app one could run:

$ reverse some input string
 emos tupni gnirts

directly in the terminal.

Multiple Apps per Package

A single package can define multiple apps by using submodules. Each app can have its own entry point in a different submodule of the package.

# src/MyMultiApp.jl
module MyMultiApp

function (@main)(ARGS)
    println("Main app: ", join(ARGS, " "))
end

include("CLI.jl")

end # module

# src/CLI.jl
module CLI

function (@main)(ARGS)
    println("CLI submodule: ", join(ARGS, " "))
end

end # module CLI

# Project.toml

# standard fields here

[apps]
main-app = {}
cli-app = { submodule = "CLI" }

This will create two executables:

• main-app that runs julia -m MyMultiApp
• cli-app that runs julia -m MyMultiApp.CLI

Configuring Julia Flags

Apps can specify default Julia command-line flags that will be passed to the Julia process when the app is run. This is useful for configuring performance settings, threading, or other Julia options specific to your application.

Default Julia Flags

You can specify default Julia flags in the Project.toml file using the julia_flags field:

# Project.toml

[apps]
myapp = { julia_flags = ["--threads=4", "--optimize=2"] }
performance-app = { julia_flags = ["--threads=auto", "--startup-file=yes", "--depwarn=no"] }
debug-app = { submodule = "Debug", julia_flags = ["--check-bounds=yes", "--optimize=0"] }

With this configuration:

• myapp will run with 4 threads and optimization level 2
• performance-app will run with automatic thread detection, startup file enabled, and deprecation warnings disabled
• debug-app will run with bounds checking enabled and no optimization

Runtime Julia Flags

You can override or add to the default Julia flags at runtime using the -- separator. Everything before -- will be passed as flags to Julia, and everything after -- will be passed as arguments to your app:

# Uses default flags from Project.toml
myapp input.txt output.txt

# Override thread count, keep other defaults
myapp --threads=8 -- input.txt output.txt

# Add additional flags
myapp --threads=2 --optimize=3 --check-bounds=yes -- input.txt output.txt

# Only Julia flags, no app arguments
myapp --threads=1 --

The final Julia command will combine:

1. Fixed flags (like --startup-file=no and -m ModuleName)
2. Default flags from julia_flags in Project.toml
3. Runtime flags specified before --
4. App arguments specified after --

Overriding the Julia Executable

By default, apps run with the same Julia executable that was used to install them. You can override this globally using the JULIA_APPS_JULIA_CMD environment variable:

# Use a different Julia version for all apps
export JULIA_APPS_JULIA_CMD=/path/to/different/julia
myapp input.txt

# On Windows
set JULIA_APPS_JULIA_CMD=C:\path\to\different\julia.exe
myapp input.txt

Installing Julia apps

The installation of Julia apps is similar to installing Julia libraries but instead of using e.g. Pkg.add or pkg> add one uses Pkg.Apps.add or pkg> app add (develop is also available).