[R-pkg-devel] .gitkeep file to prevent folder from erasing when empty

[Luck Buttered]

Hello everyone:

Thank you for the helpful suggestions!

I moved the directory name to the .Rbuildignore file, as Johannes suggested.

Uwe, thanks for bringing up that topic! Yes, I read that we cannot
automatically write files to user's filespace (outside of tempdir()). So,
there is nothing in our package that will automatically write to user's
filespace. However, we do allow users to manually enter the suggested path
when going over examples in the vignette (which is the extdata/OutputFolder)
.

We did not think about if users cannot have write access to that folder.
However, that will not render the package useless for them. Instead, they
can manually enter an output folder pathway that works for them, and follow
the vignette examples that way. The presence of the extdata/OutputFolder is
just recommended for simplicity with following examples (and if write
available for users).

Thanks again!

On Mon, Oct 3, 2016 at 2:25 AM, Uwe Ligges <ligges at statistik.tu-dortmund.de>
wrote:

>
>
> On 03.10.2016 08:13, Johannes Ranke wrote:
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> You can include the .gitkeep file in .Rbuildignore. This will prevent it
>> from
>> being present in the package you test or submit, but git willl still see
>> it
>> and keep the directory.
>>
>> Johannes
>>
>> Am Montag, 3. Oktober 2016, 00:03:33 schrieb Luck Buttered:
>>
>>> Hello everyone:
>>>
>>> I am working on a vignette for a package that outputs reports for users.
>>> As
>>> part of the vignette, users can manually run eval=FALSE code that creates
>>> example reports. These example reports that they create can be saved to
>>> an
>>> output folder within extdata (extdata/OutputFolder).
>>>
>>
>
> Note that this is a bad idea.
> Your users may not have write access to that folder, e.g. for network
> wiede installation as the one at my department.
> Also, you have to ask users (por let them enter a path or file) before
> writing somewhere on the filespace if not tempdir().
>
> Best,
> Uwe Ligges
>
>
>
>
>
>>> When I submit to CRAN, I will be sure that OutputFolder is empty.
>>> However,
>>> whenever I make it empty, the entire folder disappears. To combat this
>>> problem, I have placed a .gitkeep file within the OutputFolder.
>>>
>>> I *believe* the presence of the .gitkeep file works as intended (prevents
>>> the automatic removal of the OutputFolder when empty). However, upon
>>> running check(), I receive a note:
>>>
>>> *checking for hidden files and directories ... NOTE*
>>> *Found the following hidden files and directories:*
>>> *  inst/extdata/OutputFiles/.gitkeep*
>>> *These were most likely included in error. See section ‘Package*
>>> *structure’ in the ‘Writing R Extensions’ manual.*
>>>
>>> Does anyone have advice on how to effectively remove this note?
>>> Otherwise,
>>> does my rationale above seem like a reasonable purpose for keeping the
>>> note?
>>>
>>> Thank you for helping me approach this!
>>>
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>>>
>>> ______________________________________________
>>> R-package-devel at r-project.org mailing list
>>> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-package-devel
>>>
>>
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