[Rd] Building Packages on Windows using .Rbuildignore (PR#7379)

[Gabor Grothendieck]

Gabor Grothendieck <ggrothendieck <at> myway.com> writes:

> 
> Duncan Murdoch <murdoch <at> stats.uwo.ca> writes:
> 
> : 
> : On Sat, 20 Nov 2004 03:47:50 +0000 (UTC), Gabor Grothendieck
> : <ggrothendieck <at> myway.com> wrote:
> : 
> : >Duncan Murdoch <murdoch <at> stats.uwo.ca> writes:
> : >
> : >> 
> : >> On Sat, 20 Nov 2004 00:39:17 +0000 (UTC), Gabor Grothendieck
> : >> <ggrothendieck <at> myway.com> wrote:
> : >> 
> : >> >: Even with this change, Rcmd check is still going to install the files
> : >> >: it's supposed to ignore, because it uses Rcmd INSTALL, and there's no
> : >> >: .Rbuildignore support there.
> : >> >: 
> : >> >
> : >> >If the behaviour is suddenly changed then this is going to cause work
> : >> >for people whose scripts depend on the current behavior. 
> : >> 
> : >> Yes, that's normal.   If you work around a bug and the bug gets fixed,
> : >> then you will need to change your code.  That's why the NEWS file
> : >> reports bug fixes and other changes.



Assuming that the behavior of the R CMD commands is changed
so that they respect .Rbuildignore but that no flag or
switch is immediately implemented to turn on and off
.Rbuildignore processing I have the following workaround
to allow the user to implement either situation.
It is simple enough that it does not require a script.  
I have not actually tried it out yet since the changed
commands are not yet available.

It applies to Windows or UNIX but is described below relative
to Windows and to an assumed folder tree called mypkg
which is the folder that contains .Rbuildignore.

1. in Windows Explorer create a second folder called
mypkg-shortcuts

2. select all files and folders directly within mypkg except
.Rbuildignore and right-click drag them to mypkg-shortcuts
selecting Create ShortCut after letting up on the right
mouse button.  That will create a shortcut to each file and 
folder in mypkg.  (Note that the files and folders dragged
include DESCRIPTION, R, man, etc. directly in mypkg but 
not the .files another level deep such as the .R and .Rd
files within R and man.)

3. now run off mypkg if the .Rbuildignore version is wanted
and run off mypkg-shortcuts if not.  Any time a file
in mypkg is changed in mypkg it will automatically change in
mypkg-shortcuts since they are all links.  (Special care
should be taken if files are added or deleted immediately
within mypkg; however, this is relatively rare since no
source or documentation is there.)

Note that the R and man folders within mypkg-shortcuts are
themselves links to the corresponding folders in mypkg so
that any change that occurs in mypkg\R and mypkg\man will
automatically be reflected in the mypkg-shortcuts versions.