Wanted to re-start this thread a bit, since I'm still not exactly sure
the best approach to my problem -- basically, the parameters I'm try
to make persistent are installation locations of a particular command
line program that is not installed along with an R package I'm working
on (GDAL, for those of you who are interested in the specifics). The
function tries to dummy-proof this process by doing a (mostly)
brute-force search of the user's drive for the program location the
first time it executes, and then stores this information (the path to
a given executable) in an option for use with other functions. This
search process can take some time, so I'd prefer to have this option
set in a semi-permanent way (so it persists between sessions).
Now, Brian Ripley suggested modifying the .Rprofile, but Bert Guntner
suggested this might not be a welcome behavior. Given that, on an
operating system level, there are often per-program directories for
preferences, would it follow that it might make sense to store
package-options in some standardized location? If so, where might
this be? Would it make sense to drop then in the package directory?
Is this a discussion that should move over to r-developers?
--j
On Sat, Jun 1, 2013 at 4:57 PM, Prof Brian Ripley <ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk> wrote:
> On 01/06/2013 22:44, Anthony Damico wrote:
>> hope this helps.. :)
>>
>> # define an object `x`
>> x <- list( "any value here" , 10 )
>>
>> # set `myoption` to that object
>> options( "myoption" = x )
>>
>> # retrieve it later (perhaps within a function elsewhere in the package)
>> ( y <- getOption( myoption ) )
>>
>>
>> it's nice to name your options `mypackage.myoption` so users know what
>> package the option is associated with in case they type `options()`
>>
>>
>> here's the `.onLoad` function in the R survey package. notice how the
>> options are only set *if* they don't already exist--
>
> But a nicer convention is that used by most packages in R itself: if the
> option is not set, the function using it assumes a suitable default.
> That would make sense for all the FALSE defaults below.
>
> Note though that this is not 'persistent': users have to set options in
> their startup files (see ?Startup). There is no official location to
> store package configurations. Users generally dislike software saving
> settings in their own file space so it seems very much preferable to use
> the standard R mechanisms (.Rprofile etc).
>
>>
>>> survey:::.onLoad
>>
>> function (...)
>> {
>> if (is.null(getOption("survey.lonely.psu")))
>> options(survey.lonely.psu = "fail")
>> if (is.null(getOption("survey.ultimate.cluster")))
>> options(survey.ultimate.cluster = FALSE)
>> if (is.null(getOption("survey.want.obsolete")))
>> options(survey.want.obsolete = FALSE)
>> if (is.null(getOption("survey.adjust.domain.lonely")))
>> options(survey.adjust.domain.lonely = FALSE)
>> if (is.null(getOption("survey.drop.replicates")))
>> options(survey.drop.replicates = TRUE)
>> if (is.null(getOption("survey.multicore")))
>> options(survey.multicore = FALSE)
>> if (is.null(getOption("survey.replicates.mse")))
>> options(survey.replicates.mse = FALSE)
>> }
>> <environment: namespace:survey>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Sat, Jun 1, 2013 at 4:01 PM, Jonathan Greenberg <jgrn at illinois.edu>wrote:
>>
>>> R-helpers:
>>>
>>> Say I'm developing a package that has a set of user-definable options that
>>> I would like to be persistent across R-invocations (they are saved
>>> someplace). Of course, I can create a little text file to be written/read,
>>> but I was wondering if there is an "officially sanctioned" way to do this?
>>> I see there is an options() and getOptions() function, but I'm unclear how
>>> I would use this in my own package to create/save new options for my
>>> particular package. Cheers!
>>>
>>> --j
>>>
>>> --
>>> Jonathan A. Greenberg, PhD
>>> Assistant Professor
>>> Global Environmental Analysis and Remote Sensing (GEARS) Laboratory
>>> Department of Geography and Geographic Information Science
>>> University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
>>> 607 South Mathews Avenue, MC 150
>>> Urbana, IL 61801
>>> Phone: 217-300-1924
>>> http://www.geog.illinois.edu/~jgrn/
>>> AIM: jgrn307, MSN: jgrn307 at hotmail.com, Gchat: jgrn307, Skype: jgrn3007
>>>
>>> [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
>>>
>>> ______________________________________________
>>> R-help at r-project.org mailing list
>>> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
>>> PLEASE do read the posting guide
>>> http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
>>> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
>>>
>>
>> [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
>>
>> ______________________________________________
>> R-help at r-project.org mailing list
>> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
>> PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
>> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
>>
>
>
> --
> Brian D. Ripley, ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk
> Professor of Applied Statistics, http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/
> University of Oxford, Tel: +44 1865 272861 (self)
> 1 South Parks Road, +44 1865 272866 (PA)
> Oxford OX1 3TG, UK Fax: +44 1865 272595
--
Jonathan A. Greenberg, PhD
Assistant Professor
Global Environmental Analysis and Remote Sensing (GEARS) Laboratory
Department of Geography and Geographic Information Science
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
259 Computing Applications Building, MC-150
605 East Springfield Avenue
Champaign, IL 61820-6371
Phone: 217-300-1924
http://www.geog.illinois.edu/~jgrn/
AIM: jgrn307, MSN: jgrn307 at hotmail.com, Gchat: jgrn307, Skype: jgrn3007