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In developing and debugging a package today, I ran into a problem where installing the package through the menu seemed to stop working; changes I made simply weren’t being updated. As a matter of course, I have been selecting the option to install the package for all users on the computer. I was able, finally, to get the updates to take by selecting to install the package for just the current user. Here is my hypothesis, and I am hoping that someone can confirm or deny it (and maybe provide a fix):

1) Maybe one time I accidentally forgot to change the option from the default (install for just the current user) to my preference (install for all users).

2) Maybe if a package named the same thing is installed both ways, the version installed for the current user takes precedence.

Any thoughts? And is there a way to remove the conflict?

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As a package developer, do not use File -> Install. This menu item is for the convenience of people who do not (yet) know what installing a package entails exactly. As a developer, you must be in full control and know exactly what goes where. I suggest copying the package files manually.

I believe File -> Install will install the package into either $UserBaseDirectory/Applications or $BaseDirectory/Application (for the current user or all users, respectively). Check these directories.

To check what exactly gets loaded with Get["MyPackage`"], use FindFile["MyPackage`"].

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  • $\begingroup$ Might be worth mentioning that thinking about how to turn one's package into a paclet would be good, too, as it provides versioning and other nice things. I think Kuba also has a way to do a global paclet install, too, as opposed to just on a user-by-user basis. $\endgroup$
    – b3m2a1
    Jul 3, 2019 at 7:16
  • $\begingroup$ @b3m2a1 right, didn't think about that. So assuming that FileNameJoin[{$BaseDirectory, "Paclets", "Repository"}] exists you can run e.g. MPMInstall["kubapod", "mpm", "Destination" -> FileNameJoin[{$BaseDirectory, "Paclets", "Repository"}], "IgnoreVersion" -> True] it should work with .paclet path spec instead of first two arguments too. $\endgroup$
    – Kuba ♦
    Jul 3, 2019 at 10:57

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