# Best practices for specifying dependencies **URL:** \ **Category:** Questions\ **Created:** [September 12, 2018, 1:37pm UTC](https://discuss.dvc.org/t/best-practices-for-specifying-dependencies/96 "2018-09-12T13:37:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![tmain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2acd7d/32.png) [@tmain](https://discuss.dvc.org/u/tmain)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2018, 1:37pm UTC](https://discuss.dvc.org/t/best-practices-for-specifying-dependencies/96/1 "2018-09-12T13:37:04Z")
In a pipeline, if `folder1` is the output of `stage1` and used in `stage2`, then dvc will know about it if we run `dvc run -d folder1 -o folder2 python stage2.py` Equivalently, since stage1 creates a dvc file, we could run: `dvc run -d stage1.dvc -o folder2 python stage2.py` What is the recommended way ? Thanks ! ---
**Author:** ![kupruser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e95f7d/32.png) [@kupruser](https://discuss.dvc.org/u/kupruser)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2018, 2:08pm UTC](https://discuss.dvc.org/t/best-practices-for-specifying-dependencies/96/2 "2018-09-12T14:08:22Z")
Hi @tmain ! If you specify the `stage1.dvc` as a dependency for `stage2.dvc`, dvc will not be able to track dependencies of `stage1.dvc` when you call `dvc repro stage2.dvc` because the DAG is built using explicitly specified dependencies and outputs by tying them together, but `stage1.dvc` doesn’t consider `stage1.dvc` file as an output of the stage, but rather as a metafile describing the stage. So the recommended way would be to explicitly specify outputs of stage1 as dependency of the stage2. Thanks, Ruslan ---
**Author:** ![tmain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2acd7d/32.png) [@tmain](https://discuss.dvc.org/u/tmain)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2018, 2:08pm UTC](https://discuss.dvc.org/t/best-practices-for-specifying-dependencies/96/3 "2018-09-12T14:08:59Z")
Thanks for the prompt clarification !