Make julia_exename public API?

[fonsp]

Base.julia_cmd is public API, but Base.julia_exename is not (it has no docstring).

Many packages already use julia_exename: https://juliahub.com/ui/Search?q=julia_exename&type=code

julia_exename is also used in the documentation of julia_cmd:

help?> Base.julia_cmd
  Base.julia_cmd(juliapath=joinpath(Sys.BINDIR, julia_exename()); cpu_target)

  Return a julia command similar to the one of the running process. Propagates
  any of the --cpu-target, --sysimage, ...

[Seelengrab]

Almost all of these seem to be of the form

joinpath(Sys.BINDIR, Base.julia_exename())

Would it make more sense to have packages use julia_cmd directly instead, since that is already API?

[giordano]

You probably want to use julia_cmd: #48039. And the first element of julia_cmd is the executable path, if you really only want that one.

[fonsp]

Thanks for the suggestions! Indeed, I think some of the uses found by https://juliahub.com/ui/Search?q=julia_exename&type=code could just use julia_cmd() instead.

But for some, like PackageCompiler, you actually want the flags to not be propagated, right? When you are not doing distributed computing, but launching a sandboxed Julia process for a dedicated task.

Perhaps we could make propagation configurable with a kwarg of julia_cmd? Or do you think (because of #48039) that this functionality should not be exposed to users at all?

[giordano]

As I said above, you can use julia_cmd()[1].

[fonsp]

I see, thanks! Feel free to close then.