[R-pkg-devel] CRAN write to home policy

[Ogan Mancarci]

Corrected antiSocialSkip6Lines

antiSocialSkip6Lines = function(filename, output = paste0(filename,
'_skipped')){
    lines = readLines(filename)
    lines = lines[-(1:6)]
    writeLines(lines, output)
}

On 26 March 2018 at 16:06, Ogan Mancarci <ogan.mancarci at gmail.com> wrote:

> Thanks for the clarification.
>
> What about a scenario where the user has enter a filename which is used as
> a seed for the output file. For instance
>
> antiSocialSkip6Lines = function(filename, output = paste0(filename,
> '_skipped')){
>     lines = readLines(filename)
>     lines = lines[-(1:6)]
> }
>
> Here, there is an input from the user which determines what the output is
> and it is clearly spelled out in the argument list. Yet the user input is
> not the name of the resulting file unless the user wants it to be.
>
> Cheers,
> Ogan
>
> On 26 March 2018 at 15:29, Uwe Ligges <ligges at statistik.tu-dortmund.de>
> wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> On 26.03.2018 23:48, Ogan Mancarci wrote:
>>
>>> This is from  CRAN repository policy:
>>>
>>> "Packages should not write in the user’s home filespace (including
>>> clipboards), nor anywhere else on the file system apart from the R
>>> session’s temporary directory (or during installation in the location
>>> pointed to by TMPDIR: and such usage should be cleaned up). (…) Limited
>>> exceptions may be allowed in interactive sessions if the package obtains
>>> confirmation from the user."
>>>
>>> I am unclear about the scope of this rule. For instance if I had this
>>> function:
>>>
>>> antiSocialWriteLines = function(text, file = 'defaultFile', ...){
>>>      writeLines(text , file, ...)
>>> }
>>>
>>>
>>
>> Simply use file=tempfile() as the default so you do not overwrite stuff
>> in the user filespace and the user can insert another filename which is the
>> confirmation.
>>
>> Best,
>> Uwe Ligges
>>
>>
>>
>> would I be allowed to add it to a package since it writes to a file by
>>> default without asking for confirmation?
>>>
>>> Frankly reading this text, I feel like even writeLines itself violates it
>>> as it writes without "confirmation" once you give it a file path.
>>>
>>>         [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
>>>
>>> ______________________________________________
>>> R-package-devel at r-project.org mailing list
>>> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-package-devel
>>>
>>>
>

	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]