[Rd] Problem understanding behaviour of versionCheck for loadNamespace (and when versions for Imports packages are checked)
Duncan Murdoch
murdoch.duncan at gmail.com
Thu Nov 27 02:08:54 CET 2014
On 26/11/2014, 7:38 PM, Geoff Lee wrote:
> Many thanks Duncan for the quick response.
A little too quick, it seems...
>
> A bug is a relief in a way. I've been digging my way deeper into this (and
> learning more as I go) for several days now - but it is a diversion from (a
> diversion from) my main goal :-(
>
> Is there somewhere specific I should report or log the bug or will that
> happen from this mailing-list automatically? (I have seen the Bug Tracking
> link on the r-project page and followed that, but don't yet have a Bugzilla
> account, nor know the precise mechanics and protocols for notifying a bug)
If you can put together a simple set of steps to illustrate a bug, then
reporting on bugs.r-project.org is the way to get it recorded.
Reporting it on this list is really hit and miss. But I think from your
previous description, something else is going on. When I try to load a
namespace with a bad version number, I get an error:
loadNamespace("rgl", versionCheck=list(name="rgl", op=">",
version=package_version('3.0')))
Error in loadNamespace("rgl", versionCheck = list(name = "rgl", op =
">", :
namespace ‘rgl’ 0.95.1163 is being loaded, but > 3.0 is required
Duncan Murdoch
>
> Geoff
>
> PS Building package2 - via devtools::build('package2', binary = TRUE) does
> check and insist that I have an appropriate version of the 'to be imported'
> package1 installed in my .libPath().
>
> It was only when I simulated a user who has and older version of the
> Imported package1 (by overwriting the later version of package 1 with an
> earlier version), then trying to load or attach package2 that the (failure
> of the version checking) at loadNamespace time for package1 became apparent
> (well apparentish after quite a bit of digging)
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Duncan Murdoch [mailto:murdoch.duncan at gmail.com]
> Sent: Thursday, 27 November 2014 10:57 AM
> To: Geoff Lee; r-devel at r-project.org
> Subject: Re: [Rd] Problem understanding behaviour of versionCheck for
> loadNamespace (and when versions for Imports packages are checked)
>
> Summary: I think you've found a bug.
>
> On 26/11/2014, 5:39 PM, Geoff Lee wrote:
>> Hi
>>
>>
>>
>> I'm still exploring the R programming universe, so if this is being
>> asked in the wrong place, or in the wrong way (e.g. too verbose or
>> lacking in crucial detail or in the wrong format) please let me know
>>
>>
>>
>> I am trying to understand when the version constraints for packages
>> which appear in the Imports field of a DESCRIPTION file are checked.
>
> I would have assumed they are checked when you try to install the package.
> If you ask for version 3.0, and only have 0.3, the install should fail.
>
> But as you've found, the documents say something else...
>
>>
>>
>>
>> Along the way I've hit a snag understanding what loadNamespace with
>> the versionCheck argument set does. The core of my query is 'am I
>> doing something wrong, or have I stumbled across a bug?'. Probably
>> the former, but after several days I still can't figure it out, so any
>> guidance, hints or outright help would be much appreciated.
>>
>>
>>
>> Thanks in advance
>>
>>
>>
>> Geoff
>>
>>
>>
>> What I've tried so far.
>>
>>
>>
>> "Writing R extensions" section 1.1.3 says
>>
>>
>>
>> "The 'Imports' field lists packages whose namespaces are imported from
>> (as specified in the NAMESPACE file) but which do not need to be attached.
> ...
>> shortened for brevity ... Packages declared in the 'Depends' field
>> should not also be in the 'Imports' field. Version requirements can be
>> specified and are checked when the namespace is loaded (since R >= 3.0.0).
> "
>>
>>
>>
>> It is slightly ambiguous, but seems to mean that the version
>> dependencies for both Depends packages and Imports packages are
>> checked when the package
>> (namespace?) is loaded.
>>
>>
>>
>> The release notes for R3.0.0 are more direct. They say
>>
>>
>>
>> "loadNamespace() allows a version specification to be given, and this
>> is used to check version specifications given in the Imports field
>> when a namespace is loaded"
>>
>>
>>
>> But some toy (locally built and loaded) examples seem to show that
>> while the Depends versions are checked, the Imports version
>> constraints are not (on Windows 64, running R3.1.2, see full session_info
> later).
>>
>>
>>
>> My tests (package2 imports package1) use implicit loading (via the
>> package1::fun1() idiom) so I have worked back to try get a minimal
>> example of what's causing me problems. I have tried
>
> According to what you have written, that should have failed. So it looks
> like a bug.
>>
>>
>>
>> loadNamespace('package2', versionCheck = list (op = ">=", version =
>> package_version('3.0')))
>>
>>
>>
>> This should fail (package2 has version 0.3, not 3.0) but instead it
>> seems to load package2, version 0.3 OK.
>>
>>
>>
>> Reading the code of loadNamespace, there is some code which says
>>
>>
>>
>> if (length(z <- versionCheck) == 3L && !do.call(z$op,
>>
>> list(as.numeric_version(version), z$version)))
>>
>> stop(gettextf("namespace %s %s is being loaded, but %s %s is
>> required",
>>
>> sQuote(package), version, z$op, z$version),
>>
>> domain = NA)
>>
>>
>>
>> I think it is the length(z <- versionCheck) == 3L part of the if test
>> that is allowing the incorrect version be loaded.
>
> That does seem like a typo.
>
> Duncan Murdoch
>
>>
>>
>>
>> The documentation for loadNamespace says that "versionCheck" is
>>
>> "NULL or a version specification (a list with components op and
> version))."
>>
>>
>>
>> If I add a third (nonsense) component to the versionCheck argument
>> list, then loadNamespace does what I expect. Is there supposed to be
>> a third component in the list, and if so what should it be? Or is this a
> bug?
>>
>>
>>
>> I've got this far and am now stumped, hence my query.
>>
>>
>>
>> Some output from my tests.
>>
>>
>>
>> d> devtools::session_info()
>>
>> Session
>> info------------------------------------------------------------------
>> --
>>
>> setting value
>>
>> version R version 3.1.2 (2014-10-31)
>>
>> system x86_64, mingw32
>>
>> ui RStudio (0.98.953)
>>
>> language (EN)
>>
>> collate English_Australia.1252
>>
>> tz Australia/Sydney
>>
>>
>>
>> Packages--------------------------------------------------------------
>> ------
>> ----
>>
>> package * version date source
>>
>> devtools 1.6.1 2014-10-07 CRAN (R 3.1.2)
>>
>> rstudioapi 0.1 2014-03-27 CRAN (R 3.1.1)
>>
>>
>>
>> d> # I think this should fail but it does not
>>
>> d> loadNamespace('package2', versionCheck = list(op='>=', version =
>> package_version('3.0')))
>>
>> <environment: namespace:package2>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> d> devtools::session_info()
>>
>> Session
>> info------------------------------------------------------------------
>> --
>>
>> setting value
>>
>> version R version 3.1.2 (2014-10-31)
>>
>> system x86_64, mingw32
>>
>> ui RStudio (0.98.953)
>>
>> language (EN)
>>
>> collate English_Australia.1252
>>
>> tz Australia/Sydney
>>
>>
>>
>> Packages--------------------------------------------------------------
>> ------
>> ----
>>
>> package * version date source
>>
>> devtools 1.6.1 2014-10-07 CRAN (R 3.1.2)
>>
>> package2 0.3 2014-11-24 local
>>
>> rstudioapi 0.1 2014-03-27 CRAN (R 3.1.1)
>>
>>
>>
>> d> #Try again with a third (nonsense) entry in the versionCheck list
>>
>> d> unloadNamespace('package2')
>>
>> d> loadNamespace('package2', versionCheck = list(op='>=', version =
>> package_version('3.0'), please = 'check it'))
>>
>> Error in loadNamespace("package2", versionCheck = list(op = ">=",
>> version = package_version("3.0"), :
>>
>> namespace 'package2' 0.3 is being loaded, but >= 3.0 is required
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> d> devtools::session_info()
>>
>> Session
>> info------------------------------------------------------------------
>> --
>>
>> setting value
>>
>> version R version 3.1.2 (2014-10-31)
>>
>> system x86_64, mingw32
>>
>> ui RStudio (0.98.953)
>>
>> language (EN)
>>
>> collate English_Australia.1252
>>
>> tz Australia/Sydney
>>
>>
>>
>> Packages--------------------------------------------------------------
>> ------
>> ----
>>
>> package * version date source
>>
>> devtools 1.6.1 2014-10-07 CRAN (R 3.1.2)
>>
>> rstudioapi 0.1 2014-03-27 CRAN (R 3.1.1)
>>
>> d> loadNamespace('package2', versionCheck = list(op='>=', version =
>> package_version('0.3'), please = 'check it'))
>>
>> <environment: namespace:package2>
>>
>> d>
>>
>>
>> [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
>>
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>>
>
>
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