[R-pkg-devel] is R CMD build --compact-vignettes working as expected?

[Ben Bolker]

   I hope so too. The (annoying) workaround is to compact the vignette 
yourself (using qpdf directly or using tools::compactPDF), then use 
no-build-vignettes.  The problem there is whatever's supposed to happen 
with building vignette indices.  The uuuuugly workaround, I guess, is to 
build the tarball, compact the vignettes oneself, then *replace* them in 
the tarball.  (Obviously I can automate that, but it seems as though it 
would be unnecessary if I knew what was going on ...)

   cheers
    Ben


On 10/7/20 4:10 PM, John Fox wrote:
> Dear Ben,
> 
> I was hoping that someone would pick up on this problem, because I've 
> experienced the same issue of --compact-vignettes apparently ignored, 
> e.g., with the Rcmdr package under R 4.0.2 on both macOS and Windows.
> 
> Best,
>   John
> 
> John Fox, Professor Emeritus
> McMaster University
> Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
> web: https://socialsciences.mcmaster.ca/jfox/
> 
> On 2020-10-05 1:09 p.m., Ben Bolker wrote:
>>    Am I confused, or doing something wrong, or ... ?
>>
>>    I have qpdf installed, and am running R CMD build with 
>> --compact-vignettes, but the PDF in the tarball doesn't seem to be 
>> compressed despite the fact that the output messages say "compacting 
>> vignettes ..."
>>
>>
>>    $ R CMD build --compact-vignettes lme4
>> * checking for file ‘lme4/DESCRIPTION’ ... OK
>> * preparing ‘lme4’:
>> * checking DESCRIPTION meta-information ... OK
>> * cleaning src
>> * installing the package to process help pages
>> * saving partial Rd database
>> * creating vignettes ... OK
>> Warning: ‘inst/doc’ files
>>      ‘lmerperf.html’, ‘lmer.pdf’, ‘PLSvGLS.pdf’, ‘Theory.pdf’
>>    ignored as vignettes have been rebuilt.
>>    Run R CMD build with --no-build-vignettes to prevent rebuilding.
>> * compacting vignettes and other PDF files
>> * cleaning src
>> * checking for LF line-endings in source and make files and shell scripts
>> * checking for empty or unneeded directories
>> * building ‘lme4_1.1-24.tar.gz’
>>
>>    The copy of lmer.pdf in the resulting tarball is 900K or so:
>>
>> $ tar ztvf lme4_1.1-24.tar.gz lme4/inst/doc/lmer.pdf
>> -rw-r--r-- bolker/bolker 907022 2020-10-05 12:59 lme4/inst/doc/lmer.pdf
>>
>>    The previously built (and manually compacted) version of lmer.pdf 
>> in the tarball is 500K:
>>
>> $ ls -l lme4/inst/doc/lmer.pdf
>> -rw-r--r-- 1 bolker bolker 495199 Oct  3 22:15 lme4/inst/doc/lmer.pdf
>>
>>     Is 'R CMD build' confused by the presence of a pre-built PDF in 
>> the inst/doc directory? Or am I somehow mistaken about how this is 
>> supposed to work?
>>
>>     I would just use --no-build-vignettes and submit the tarball with 
>> the previously built/compressed PDF, but I'm trying to avoid a
>> "Package has a VignetteBuilder field but no prebuilt vignette index" 
>> NOTE, which I assume is missing because I built without building 
>> vignettes ... ?
>>
>>    As always, enlightenment is welcome.
>>
>>    cheers
>>      Ben Bolker
>>
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