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

[Luck Buttered]

Hello everyone:

Inside .Rbuildignore, I put the following line:

^OutputFolder$

However, I notice that the extdata/OutputFolder still disappears if there
are no files inside of it. (I am thinking this happens when I push changes
to Github). I am trying to keep the extdata/OutputFolder present (whether
or not it has files inside of it) for both github and when I submit the
package.

Thanks again for any input you may have!




On Mon, Oct 3, 2016 at 8:15 AM, Luck Buttered <luckbuttered at gmail.com>
wrote:

> 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!
>>>>
>>>>         [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
>>>>
>>>> ______________________________________________
>>>> R-package-devel at r-project.org mailing list
>>>> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-package-devel
>>>>
>>>
>> ______________________________________________
>> R-package-devel at r-project.org mailing list
>> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-package-devel
>>
>
>

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