[R-pkg-devel] Installing "Additional" Packages During Tests

[Uwe Ligges]

On 18.03.2019 17:28, brodie gaslam wrote:
> I believe your first point makes the alternate workflow below illegal, 
> but the subsequent ones add just enough ambiguity that I'd like to makes 
> sure.  How about:
> 
> 0. Only during the running of tests
> 1. Create a temporary directory tmplib using tempfile()/dircreate().
> 2. Install dummy package to that temporary directory using `lib=tmplib`: 
> install.packages(srcdir, type='src', repos=NULL, lib=tmplib).
> 3. In the tests, use library(testpkg, lib.loc=tmplib)
> 4. unload / remove / unlink temp directory on.exit
> 
> This is only in the test running.  None of the code in the package 
> proper that the user would invoke in normal use installs packages.  It 
> only happens if the user installs and runs the tests, and with the above 
> modification, it would only be into a temporary library directory.
> 
> Thank you for your patience and attention.

Please submit following these suggestions and the CRAN team will look 
into the details and decide.

Best,
Uwe



> Best,
> 
> Brodie.
> 
> 
> On Monday, March 18, 2019, 11:56:55 AM EDT, Uwe Ligges 
> <ligges using statistik.tu-dortmund.de> wrote:
> 
> 
> 1. You should never install packages without asking the user.
> 
> 2. a package should never write to the user file space or default
> libraries unless the user akss for it explicitly.
> In tests, use tempdir().
> 
> 3. You cannot expect that the library is writeable. It is not in many
> network installations.
> 
> Best,
> Uwe Ligges
> 
> 
> 
> On 18.03.2019 16:48, brodie gaslam via R-package-devel wrote:
>  >
>  > Subject:
>  > Installing "Additional" Packages During Tests
>  > From:
>  > brodie gaslam <brodie.gaslam using yahoo.com <mailto:brodie.gaslam using yahoo.com>>
>  > Date:
>  > 18.03.2019, 16:48
>  > To:
>  > List R-package-devel <r-package-devel using r-project.org 
> <mailto:r-package-devel using r-project.org>>
>  >
>  > To:
>  > List R-package-devel <r-package-devel using r-project.org 
> <mailto:r-package-devel using r-project.org>>
>  >
>  >
>  > Sorry, previous e-mail got pre-maturely sent due to fat finger...
>  > My package unitizer[1] has recently gained the following type of error:
>  >       Warning in install.packages(pkg, repos = NULL, type = "src") 
> :     'lib = 
> "/home/hornik/tmp/R.check/r-devel-clang/Work/build/Packages"' is not 
> writable
>  >       Error in install.packages(pkg, repos = NULL, type = "src") :
>  >       unable to install packages
>  >
>  > While I did recently update the package to resolve the RNGversion 
> issue, this problem seems unrelated as some of the CRAN machines produce 
> it, and some don't, on the same package version.
>  > The tests install some dummy packages with `install.packages`, and 
> this has worked for a long time, but no longer, presumably due to 
> changes in permissions of the test running daemon.  The packages are 
> removed on.exit.  The packages are used for integration tests as 
> unitizer is a package-testing-package and it is useful to be able to 
> test functionality that includes use on actual packages that change.
>  >
>  > Should I expect this to be the new normal, where I will be henceforth 
> disallowed from installing packages temporarily?  Will there be an 
> acceptable workaround (e.g. setting up a temporary library in a tempdir 
> and try to `install.packages` into that; I admit I have no familiarity 
> with this other than the vague awareness maybe this could be done)?
>  > FWIW, perhaps an indication that this is something I shouldn't be 
> doing came up earlier in the year when I had to resort to temporarily 
> unsetting "R_TESTS" as per [2].
>  > Thanks in advance for any input.
>  > Best,
>  > Brodie.
>  >
>  >
>  > [1]: 
> https://cran.r-project.org/web/checks/check_results_unitizer.html[2]: 
> https://github.com/r-lib/testthat/issues/144
>  >     [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
>  >
>  >
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