[Rd] Rcmd check fails on Windows Samba network path in R 2.9.1

[Tony Plate]

Did you try starting up R-2.8.1 and checking the result of 
file.access(lib, 2) on that very same directory where R-2.9.1 gives an 
incorrect indication?  If that gives the correct answer, then, look for 
changes in the file.access code.

-- Tony Plate

Kevin R. Coombes wrote:
> Hi,
>
> The problem almost certainly has something to do with Samba.  We also 
> have a NetApp file system, and copying the package source to that 
> drive and running Rcmd check from Windows works just fine.
>
> When running the commands from an interactive R session, file_test 
> returns TRUE and file.access to test write permission indicates a 
> failure, even though that information is incorrect.Here is a session 
> transcript:
>
> -----------------------------------------
> > getwd()
> [1] "n:/krc/Umpire/R-Package"
> > lib <- "Umpire.Rcheck"
> > file_test("-d", lib)
> [1] TRUE
> > file.access(lib, 2)
> Umpire.Rcheck
>           -1
> > dir.create(paste(lib, "testdir", sep='/'))
> > dir(lib)
> [1] "00check.log"   "00install.out" "testdir"     > sessionInfo()
> R version 2.9.1 (2009-06-26)
> i386-pc-mingw32
>
> locale:
> LC_COLLATE=English_United States.1252;LC_CTYPE=English_United 
> States.1252;LC_MONETARY=English_United 
> States.1252;LC_NUMERIC=C;LC_TIME=English_United States.1252
>
> attached base packages:
> [1] stats     graphics  grDevices utils     datasets  methods   base
> ----------------------------------------
> Again, this all worked (and still works) correctly in 2.8.1.
>
>    Kevin
>
> Tony Plate wrote:
>> This error message looks like it comes from 
>> src/library/tools/R/install.R, which contains the following test:
>>
>>    if (!.file_test("-d", lib) || file.access(lib, 2L))
>>        stop("ERROR: no permission to install to directory ",
>>             sQuote(lib), call. = FALSE)
>>
>> The function .file_test() is defined earlier in the same file (it 
>> looks at file.info(lib)$isdir) and appears to be intended to be the 
>> same as utils:::file_test().
>>
>> You could start trying to figure out what the problem is by trying 
>> these calls on the directory in question from an interactive R session.
>> (They seem to work as intended on my Windows system with a NetApp 
>> file system mounted on a letter drive.)
>>
>> -- Tony Plate
>>
>> Kevin R. Coombes wrote:
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> I have just updated R from version 2.8.1 to version 2.9.1.  I am 
>>> running Windows XP Professional, Service Pack 3.
>>>
>>> With the update, I decided to update a set of packages that I 
>>> maintain by compiling them for the new version.  Everything worked 
>>> fine except for one package.  This package is unique (among the six 
>>> I was working on) in that is stored on a UNIX-based file server that 
>>> is exported to the Windows network via Samba.  The root of that 
>>> network path is mapped to drive "N:" on the local machine.
>>>
>>> 'Rcmd check' fails for this package under 2.9.1.  The error message 
>>> in '00install.out'  is:
>>> "Error: ERROR: no permission to install to directory 
>>> 'N:/krc/Umpire/R-Package/Umpire.Rcheck'"
>>>
>>> 'Rcmd check' works for this package under 2.8.1.
>>>
>>> 'Rcmd check' works for this package if the directory is copied onto 
>>> a local hard drive instead of the network drive.
>>>
>>> 'Rcmd build' and 'Rcmd build --binary' work under both versions.
>>>
>>> It would be nice if someone could figure out what has changed and 
>>> fix it....
>>>
>>> Best,
>>>    Kevin Coombes
>>>
>>> ______________________________________________
>>> R-devel at r-project.org mailing list
>>> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel
>>>
>>
>