Julia - Error during Pkg.add() for random packages - docker

Question

While trying to run Pkg.add(...) for some Julia packages, we encountered the following error:
ERROR: Build process failed.
build!(::Array{String,1}, ::Set{Any}, ::String) at ./pkg/entry.jl:629
build!(::Array{String,1}, ::Set{Any}, ::String) at ./pkg/entry.jl:626 (repeats 2 times)
build!(::Array{String,1}, ::Dict{Any,Any}, ::Set{Any}) at ./pkg/entry.jl:637
build(::Array{String,1}) at ./pkg/entry.jl:652
resolve(::Dict{String,Base.Pkg.Types.VersionSet}, ::Dict{String,Dict{VersionNumber,Base.Pkg.Types.Available}}, ::Dict{String,Tuple{VersionNumber,Bool}}, ::Dict{String,Base.Pkg.Types.Fixed}, ::Dict{String,VersionNumber}, ::Set{String}) at ./pkg/entry.jl:572
resolve(::Dict{String,Base.Pkg.Types.VersionSet}, ::Dict{String,Dict{VersionNumber,Base.Pkg.Types.Available}}, ::Dict{String,Tuple{VersionNumber,Bool}}, ::Dict{String,Base.Pkg.Types.Fixed}) at ./pkg/entry.jl:479
edit(::Function, ::String, ::Base.Pkg.Types.VersionSet, ::Vararg{Base.Pkg.Types.VersionSet,N} where N) at ./pkg/entry.jl:30
(::Base.Pkg.Entry.##1#3{String,Base.Pkg.Types.VersionSet})() at ./task.jl:335
Stacktrace:
[1] sync_end() at ./task.jl:287
[2] macro expansion at ./task.jl:303 [inlined]
[3] add(::String, ::Base.Pkg.Types.VersionSet) at ./pkg/entry.jl:51
[4] (::Base.Pkg.Dir.##4#7{Array{Any,1},Base.Pkg.Entry.#add,Tuple{String}})() at ./pkg/dir.jl:36
[5] cd(::Base.Pkg.Dir.##4#7{Array{Any,1},Base.Pkg.Entry.#add,Tuple{String}}, ::String) at ./file.jl:70
[6] #cd#1(::Array{Any,1}, ::Function, ::Function, ::String, ::Vararg{String,N} where N) at ./pkg/dir.jl:36
[7] add(::String) at ./pkg/pkg.jl:117
The Funny thing is that if we try to rerun Pkg.add(...) for the same package, it works!
e.g Running Pkg.add("DataArrays") fails with above error first, but upon re-running the same command, it's installed correctly.
Is it possible that the underlying C/C++ libraries may be causing issues?
Environment:
Docker with Debian GNU/Linux 8.6 (jessie) Julia 0.6.3

Answer 1

earlier versions of julia are not quite stable...
my way to solve various problems is to rm -rf ~/.julia
so as to reinstall and rebuild all packages... I don know why but it works
anyway, julia is now v1.1.0 (in dev, and v1.0.1 in release)
upgrade is recommanded

Answer 2

You can also try using version 0.7 as this crossover version should be largely compatible with both 0.6 and 1.0 code