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[Bioc-devel] Unable to reproduce error!

7 messages · Martin Morgan, Hervé Pagès, Paolo Martini +1 more

#
Dear all,

I am the clipper package maintainer.
According to the "Build/check report" for BioC 3.6,
the clipper package has an error while compiling the vignette.

I try to reproduce the error in my computer using the devel version but the
R CMD check and installation goes smoothly.

Anyone has suggestions on how to debug this?
#
On 10/20/2017 03:43 AM, Paolo Martini wrote:
I verified that I'm using devel and my packages are current

$ R
 > R.version.string           # 3.4.2
 > BiocInstaller::isDevel()   # TRUE
 > BiocInstaller::biocValid() # TRUE

I checked out a fresh copy of clipper, into a temporary directory

$ git clone https://git.bioconductor.org/packages/clipper

then installed it

$ R CMD INSTALL clipper

I then extracted the R source code of the vignette

$ cd clipper/vignettes
$ R CMD Stangle clipper.Rnw  # could have used knitr::purl() for Rmd

and tried to run the vignette code

$ R -f clipper.R

It fails as on the build system

 > pathwayAnalysis <- pathQ(exp, classes, graph, nperm=100, alphaV=0.05, 
b=100)
Error in getExpression(exprs(expr), classes) : Gene names not specified.
Calls: pathQ ... getExpression -> getExpression -> getExpression -> 
getExpression
Execution halted

OK, reproducible without any additional stuff like devtools or RStudio 
getting in the way. Time to debug. I started R in my favorite IDE, and 
tried to source the vignette

$ source("clipper.R", echo=TRUE, max=Inf)

it fails in the same way. I looked for the error, and tried to reproduce 
it in a simpler fashion, guessing a bit at what the failing code was 
trying to do ('expr' in the traceback() being the function argument 'exp')

 > pathwayAnalysis <- pathQ(exp, classes, graph, nperm=100, alphaV=0.05, 
b=100)
Error in getExpression(exprs(expr), classes) : Gene names not specified.
 > traceback()
10: stop("Gene names not specified.")
9: getExpression(exprs(expr), classes)
8: getExpression(exprs(expr), classes)
7: getExpression(expr, classes)
6: getExpression(expr, classes)
5: pathQ(exp, classes, graph, nperm = 100, alphaV = 0.05, b = 100) at 
clipper.R#95
4: eval(ei, envir)
3: eval(ei, envir)
2: withVisible(eval(ei, envir))
1: source("clipper.R", echo = TRUE, max = Inf)
 > clipper:::getExpression(exprs(exp), classes)
Error in clipper:::getExpression(exprs(exp), classes) :
   Gene names not specified.

I found that clipper:::getExpression is and S4 generic, with a likely 
method, so set the debugger and tried again

 > clipper:::getExpression
standardGeneric for "getExpression" defined from package "clipper"

function (expr, classes)
standardGeneric("getExpression")
<environment: 0x11061920>
Methods may be defined for arguments: expr, classes
Use  showMethods("getExpression")  for currently available ones.
 > showMethods(clipper:::getExpression)
Function: getExpression (package clipper)
expr="ExpressionSet", classes="numeric"
expr="matrix", classes="numeric"

 > debug(clipper:::getExpression, signature=c("matrix", "numeric"))
 > clipper:::getExpression(exprs(exp), classes)
Tracing clipper:::getExpression(exprs(exp), classes) step 2
Called from: eval(expr, p)
Browse[1]> n
debug: if (is.null(rownames(expr))) stop("Gene names not specified.")
Browse[2]> rownames(expr)
NULL
Browse[2]> Q
 >

and back at the top level

 > rownames(exprs(exp))
NULL

hmm, this looks weird

 > dim(exp)
Features  Samples
        0       79

In code chunk 3 you'd got the genes from graphite, and

 > head(genes)
[1] "ENTREZID:10000" "ENTREZID:1019"  "ENTREZID:1021"
[4] "ENTREZID:1026"  "ENTREZID:1029"  "ENTREZID:1147"

in code chunk 10 you'd calculated the intersection of these genes with 
the row.names of the sample expression set

 > intersect(genes, row.names(exprs(all)))
character(0)

and this is because the rownames are in a different format

 > head(row.names(exprs(all)))
[1] "5595" "7075" "1557" "643"  "643"  "1843"

I guess this is because graphite or one of it's dependencies has 
changed, accidentally or otherwise, the format of the identifiers 
returned in chunk 3. Likely the reason that you were not able to 
reproduce this is because you were using an out-of-date version of 
graphite (isDevel() and biocValid() would have diagnosed this). I don't 
know whether the resolution is a bug fix in graphite, or a fix to your 
own vignette code; it is always worth pushing the resolution as close to 
the source of the problem as possible, so if it's a change in graphite 
then engage the maintainer("graphite") in your investigation.

Martin
This email message may contain legally privileged and/or...{{dropped:2}}
#
Thanks a lot.
Yesterday I was unable to get the error because the graphite I downloaded
was not the latest version (it had a build failure).

I'll fix clipper asap.

Thanks again.

Paolo

2017-10-20 10:12 GMT+02:00 Martin Morgan <martin.morgan at roswellpark.org>:

  
    
#
Hi Paolo,

FYI 3 days ago I contacted Gabriele Sale (maintainer of graphite
and co-author of clipper) about this. See below.

Cheers,
H.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi Gabriele,

A recent update to the graphite package introduced the following
change:

   library(graphite)
   kegg  <- pathways("hsapiens", "kegg")
   graph <- convertIdentifiers(kegg[["Chronic myeloid leukemia"]], "entrez")
   graph <- pathwayGraph(graph)
   genes <- nodes(graph)
   head(genes)
   # [1] "ENTREZID:10000" "ENTREZID:1019"  "ENTREZID:1021"
   # [4] "ENTREZID:1026"  "ENTREZID:1029"  "ENTREZID:1147"

This is with version 1.23.4 of the package. With version
1.23.3, the same commands gave:

   head(genes)
   # [1] "10000" "1019"  "1021"  "1026"  "1029"  "1147"

Was this change intended?

Note that this change breaks the clipper package for which you are
a co-author:

   https://bioconductor.org/checkResults/3.6/bioc-LATEST/clipper/

Also please note that the DEGraph package is currently broken
because it depends on NCIgraph which itself depends on RCytoscape
which is currently broken and deprecated. Unfortunately this breaks
the graphite vignette (which seems to use DEGraph):

   https://bioconductor.org/checkResults/3.6/bioc-LATEST/graphite/

The DEGraph and NCIgraph authors have been contacted and are aware
of the situation but have not been able to fix their package yet.
If they cannot fix it in time for the upcoming BioC 3.6 release,
their package will be considered as candidate for deprecation in
Bioc 3.7. So at this point I would strongly suggest that you remove
graphite's dependency on DEGraph.

Please address these issues at your earliest convenience.

The next Bioconductor release is coming soon (scheduled for end
of October) and all Bioconductor packages are expected to be
fixed before Tuesday October 24.

See https://bioconductor.org/developers/release-schedule/ for
our release schedule.

Don't hesitate to ask on the bioc-devel mailing list if you have
any questions or concerns about this.

Thanks for your contribution to Bioconductor!

Regards,
H.
On 10/20/2017 02:15 AM, Paolo Martini wrote:

  
    
1 day later
#
I see,
thanks a lot!

I changed clipper package. The next release should work!

Thanks again.



2017-10-20 17:38 GMT+02:00 Herv? Pag?s <hpages at fredhutch.org>:

  
    
#
Great! Thanks Paolo.  H.
On 10/21/2017 09:33 AM, Paolo Martini wrote:

  
    
8 days later
#
Dear all,

I maintain the DEGraph and NCIgraph packages.

They are now fixed, my apologies for the inconvenience.

Best,

Laurent


2017-10-20 17:38 GMT+02:00 Herv? Pag?s <hpages at fredhutch.org>: