Can't manage to use juliacall in WSL

[gpucce]

In WSL 2 I create a conda env, then run

pip install juliacall

this goes fine but then running

from juliacall import Main as jl

throws

[juliapkg] Locating Julia ^1.6
[juliapkg] Querying Julia versions from [https://julialang-s3.julialang.org/bin/versions.json]()
[juliapkg] Using Julia 1.7.2 at /home/gpuccetti/anaconda3/envs/juliacall/julia_env/install/bin/julia
[juliapkg] Using Julia project at /home/gpuccetti/anaconda3/envs/juliacall/julia_env
[juliapkg] Installing packages:
           julia> import Pkg
           julia> Pkg.add([Pkg.PackageSpec(name="PythonCall", uuid="6099a3de-0909-46bc-b1f4-468b9a2dfc0d")])
           julia> Pkg.resolve()
  Activating project at `[~/Repos/juliacall]()`
    Updating registry at `[~/.julia/registries/General.toml]()`
   Resolving package versions...
  No Changes to `[~/Repos/juliacall/Project.toml]()`
  No Changes to `[~/Repos/juliacall/Manifest.toml]()`
  No Changes to `[~/Repos/juliacall/Project.toml]()`
  No Changes to `[~/Repos/juliacall/Manifest.toml]()`
ERROR: ArgumentError: Package PythonCall [6099a3de-0909-46bc-b1f4-468b9a2dfc0d] is required but does not seem to be installed:
 - Run `Pkg.instantiate()` to install all recorded dependencies.

Stacktrace:
 [1] _require(pkg::Base.PkgId)
   @ Base ./loading.jl:1089
[2] require(uuidkey::Base.PkgId)
   @ Base ./loading.jl:1013
 [3] require(into::Module, mod::Symbol)
   @ Base ./loading.jl:997
 [4] top-level scope
   @ none:5

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Exception                                 Traceback (most recent call last)
/home/gpuccetti/Repos/juliacall/test_juliacall.ipynb Cell 2' in <module>
----> [1](vscode-notebook-cell://wsl%2Bdebian/home/gpuccetti/Repos/juliacall/test_juliacall.ipynb#ch0000001vscode-remote?line=0) import juliacall

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Exception                                 Traceback (most recent call last)
/home/gpuccetti/Repos/juliacall/test_juliacall.ipynb Cell 2' in <module>
----> [1](vscode-notebook-cell://wsl%2Bdebian/home/gpuccetti/Repos/juliacall/test_juliacall.ipynb#ch0000001vscode-remote?line=0) import juliacall

File ~/anaconda3/envs/juliacall/lib/python3.8/site-packages/juliacall/__init__.py:137, in <module>
    [133](file:///~/anaconda3/envs/juliacall/lib/python3.8/site-packages/juliacall/__init__.py?line=132)         os.chdir(d)
    [135](file:///~/anaconda3/envs/juliacall/lib/python3.8/site-packages/juliacall/__init__.py?line=134)     CONFIG['inited'] = True
--> [137](file:///~/anaconda3/envs/juliacall/lib/python3.8/site-packages/juliacall/__init__.py?line=136) init()

File ~/anaconda3/envs/juliacall/lib/python3.8/site-packages/juliacall/__init__.py:131, in init()
    [129](file:///~/anaconda3/envs/juliacall/lib/python3.8/site-packages/juliacall/__init__.py?line=128)     res = lib.jl_eval_string(script.encode('utf8'))
    [130](file:///~/anaconda3/envs/juliacall/lib/python3.8/site-packages/juliacall/__init__.py?line=129)     if res is None:
--> [131](file:///~/anaconda3/envs/juliacall/lib/python3.8/site-packages/juliacall/__init__.py?line=130)         raise Exception('PythonCall.jl did not start properly')
    [132](file:///~/anaconda3/envs/juliacall/lib/python3.8/site-packages/juliacall/__init__.py?line=131) finally:
    [133](file:///~/anaconda3/envs/juliacall/lib/python3.8/site-packages/juliacall/__init__.py?line=132)     os.chdir(d)

Exception: PythonCall.jl did not start properly

[cjdoris]

I'm confused by this! It says it's using a project at /home/gpuccetti/anaconda3/envs/juliacall/julia_env but then in the following output it looks like it's using a project at ~/Repos/juliacall. The only thing I can think of is that you have JULIA_PROJECT set, though this shouldn't override the command line. What's the output of env | grep JULIA?

[gpucce]

So yesterday I was played with it a bit, I could have sent the wrong error message.
Now I am going like this:

$ conda create -n juliacall
$ conda activate juliacall
$ pip install juliacall
$ python
>>> import juliacall

The output is:
import juliacall
[juliapkg] Locating Julia ^1.7.1
[juliapkg] Querying Julia versions from https://julialang-s3.julialang.org/bin/versions.json
[juliapkg] Using Julia 1.7.1 at /home/gpuccetti/.local/bin/julia
[juliapkg] Using Julia project at /home/gpuccetti/anaconda3/envs/juliacall/julia_env
[juliapkg] Installing packages:
julia> import Pkg
julia> Pkg.add([Pkg.PackageSpec(name="PythonCall", uuid="6099a3de-0909-46bc-b1f4-468b9a2dfc0d")])
julia> Pkg.resolve()
Activating project at ~/Repos/juliacall
Updating registry at ~/.julia/registries/General.toml
Resolving package versions...
No Changes to ~/Repos/juliacall/Project.toml
No Changes to ~/Repos/juliacall/Manifest.toml
No Changes to ~/Repos/juliacall/Project.toml
No Changes to ~/Repos/juliacall/Manifest.toml
ERROR: ArgumentError: Package PythonCall [6099a3de-0909-46bc-b1f4-468b9a2dfc0d] is required but does not seem to be installed:

• Run Pkg.instantiate() to install all recorded dependencies.

Stacktrace:
[1] _require(pkg::Base.PkgId)
@ Base ./loading.jl:1089
[2] require(uuidkey::Base.PkgId)
@ Base ./loading.jl:1013
[3] require(into::Module, mod::Symbol)
@ Base ./loading.jl:997
[4] top-level scope
@ none:5Traceback (most recent call last):
File "", line 1, in
File "/home/gpuccetti/anaconda3/envs/juliacall/lib/python3.8/site-packages/juliacall/init.py", line 137, in
init()
File "/home/gpuccetti/anaconda3/envs/juliacall/lib/python3.8/site-packages/juliacall/init.py", line 131, in init
raise Exception('PythonCall.jl did not start properly')
Exception: PythonCall.jl did not start properly

If I run env | grep JULIA nothing shows up

[gpucce]

I hope this helps you help me :) also as a side question that might be related is there a way to choose which julia executable juliacall should use?

One more small thing is I managed to use it in both ubuntu and windows.

[cjdoris]

I can't reproduce this on WSL.

The line Activating project at ~/Repos/juliacall doesn't appear for me, and is the problem for you, because it means PythonCall is being installed into the wrong project.

My guess is that you have Pkg.activate("~/Repos/juliacall") in a startup.jl somewhere, or similar.

[gpucce]

Thanks you guessed the right issue!