[R-pkg-devel] Annoying "missing file link" messages when rebuilding

[Duncan Murdoch]

On 03/01/2018 8:35 PM, Lenth, Russell V wrote:
> Developers:
> 
> Lately (the past month or so), I have been getting a ton of messages like the following whenever I rebuild my package:
> 
>      Rd warning: H:/progs/R/devel/EMMEANS/emmeans/man/xtable.emmGrid.Rd:57: missing file link 'print.xtableList'
> 
> The flagged line 57 in xtable.emmGrid.Rd looks like this:
> 
>      The \code{print} method uses \code{\link[xtable]{print.xtableList}}, ...
> 
> It seems like this warning occurs for every single instance of the form \link[pkg]{fcn} in my .Rd files.

I don't see a help file named print.xtableList.Rd in xtable.  That kind 
of link is to a filename, not to a help alias.  I believe the alias is 
in xtableList.Rd, so your link should be

\link[xtable:xtableList]{print.xtableList}


> The warnings seems to be false, as the actual help files generated have the links I specified, and they work correctly. So the warnings are only an annoyance -- but a considerable annoyance nonetheless.

When R is running the dynamic help system and it finds a link to a file 
that doesn't exist, it tries using its database of aliases.  However, R 
still supports static help, and in those systems the links wouldn't work.

> 
> I didn't used to get these warnings, even though many of the .Rd files (including the example shown) have been in place for some time. Does anybody know where these come from, or how they can be suppressed? Is it in the latest R version, or in RStudio?

They should be suppressed if you code the link as I show above.

Duncan Murdoch

> 
> Thanks for any help.
> 
> Russ
> 
> Russell V. Lenth  -  Professor Emeritus
> Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science
> The University of Iowa  -  Iowa City, IA 52242  USA
> Voice (319)335-0712 (Dept. office)  -  FAX (319)335-3017
> 
> ______________________________________________
> R-package-devel at r-project.org mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-package-devel
>