Elixir script with dependency

Question

I'm writing a quick Elixir script, and I'd like to use a csv library dependency. It seems a bit overkill to create a new mix project just to add in dependency management for this one library. What would you recommend? Would you go the mix project route for a simple script with a dependency?

EDIT

Note: I'm not asking how to install and access dependencies globally. The question is, "would you go the mix project route..." What is the suggested approach?

Answer 1

Go the mix project route. Quick and dirty scripts have a way of growing into bigger projects.

Answer 2

Introduced as an experimental feature in Elixir 1.12, Mix.install/2 now allows you to specify a dependency directly in an Elixir script, giving you an alternative to a full-blown mix project.

Usage is quite straightforward: list your dependencies at the top of your script (in the same format that is returned from the regular deps function in a mix project), and it will take care of downloading, compiling, and caching the dependencies for you:

Mix.install([
  {:httpoison, "~> 1.8"},
  :jason
])
HTTPoison.start
IO.puts(Jason.encode!(%{hello: :world}))
...