[R-pkg-devel] creating indelible file during unit test

[Thierry Onkelinx]

Thanks for the replies to my question.

My function uses first list.files() to select the relevant files and
then file.remove() to delete them.

Redefining file.remove() doesn't work in case of a package due to
lexical scoping. Otherwise this would be a simple and portable
solution.

Having a Linux only solution is better than no solution at all. And it
should be sufficient. Note that I had to use Sys.chmod("test",
mode="0400") instead of Sys.chmod("test", mode="0000") because
list.files() needs at least read permission.

The Linux only unit test can be bypassed on other systems with
testthat::skip_on_os().

Best regards,

ir. Thierry Onkelinx
Statisticus / Statistician

Vlaamse Overheid / Government of Flanders
INSTITUUT VOOR NATUUR- EN BOSONDERZOEK / RESEARCH INSTITUTE FOR NATURE
AND FOREST
Team Biometrie & Kwaliteitszorg / Team Biometrics & Quality Assurance
thierry.onkelinx at inbo.be
Kliniekstraat 25, B-1070 Brussel
www.inbo.be

///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
To call in the statistician after the experiment is done may be no
more than asking him to perform a post-mortem examination: he may be
able to say what the experiment died of. ~ Sir Ronald Aylmer Fisher
The plural of anecdote is not data. ~ Roger Brinner
The combination of some data and an aching desire for an answer does
not ensure that a reasonable answer can be extracted from a given body
of data. ~ John Tukey
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////


Van 14 tot en met 19 december 2017 verhuizen we uit onze vestiging in
Brussel naar het Herman Teirlinckgebouw op de site Thurn & Taxis.
Vanaf dan ben je welkom op het nieuwe adres: Havenlaan 88 bus 73, 1000 Brussel.

///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////



2017-12-12 18:42 GMT+01:00 Tom Wainwright <tcwainw at gmail.com>:
> In *nix systems, permission to delete is at the directory level, not the
> file level, so you might try changing the mode of the parent directory,
> rather than the file itself, as in:
>
>> > dir.create('test')
>> > file.create(file.path("test",'file1'))
>> [1] TRUE
>> > Sys.chmod("test", mode="0000")
>> > file.remove(file.path("test",'file1'))
>> [1] FALSE
>> Warning message:
>> In file.remove(file.path("test", "file1")) :
>>   cannot remove file 'test/file1', reason 'Permission denied'
>> > Sys.chmod("test", mode="0777")
>> > file.remove(file.path("test",'file1'))
>> [1] TRUE
>> >
>
>
> Not sure if this will work in Windows, though.
>
> Regards,
>   Tom Wainwright
>
> On Tue, Dec 12, 2017 at 4:24 AM, Thierry Onkelinx <thierry.onkelinx at inbo.be>
> wrote:
>>
>> Dear all,
>>
>> Some function I wrote deletes a bunch of files. It is crucial that all
>> files get deleted. Hence it should return an error when one or more
>> files couldn't be deleted.
>>
>> I'm writing a unit test for this function. I fail to create a file
>> that can't be deleted by the function. I've tried Sys.chmod(file,
>> "000") which didn't work.
>>
>> Any suggestions?
>>
>> Best regards,
>>
>> ir. Thierry Onkelinx
>> Statisticus / Statistician
>>
>> Vlaamse Overheid / Government of Flanders
>> INSTITUUT VOOR NATUUR- EN BOSONDERZOEK / RESEARCH INSTITUTE FOR NATURE
>> AND FOREST
>> Team Biometrie & Kwaliteitszorg / Team Biometrics & Quality Assurance
>> thierry.onkelinx at inbo.be
>> Kliniekstraat 25, B-1070 Brussel
>> www.inbo.be
>>
>>
>> ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
>> To call in the statistician after the experiment is done may be no
>> more than asking him to perform a post-mortem examination: he may be
>> able to say what the experiment died of. ~ Sir Ronald Aylmer Fisher
>> The plural of anecdote is not data. ~ Roger Brinner
>> The combination of some data and an aching desire for an answer does
>> not ensure that a reasonable answer can be extracted from a given body
>> of data. ~ John Tukey
>>
>> ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
>>
>>
>> Van 14 tot en met 19 december 2017 verhuizen we uit onze vestiging in
>> Brussel naar het Herman Teirlinckgebouw op de site Thurn & Taxis.
>> Vanaf dan ben je welkom op het nieuwe adres: Havenlaan 88 bus 73, 1000
>> Brussel.
>>
>> ______________________________________________
>> R-package-devel at r-project.org mailing list
>> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-package-devel
>
>