Correct use of tools::R_user_dir() in packages?
On Thu, 29 Jun 2023 at 01:34, Carl Boettiger <cboettig at gmail.com> wrote:
Thanks Simon, I was very much hoping that would be the case! It may be that I just need to put the version requirement on 4.0 then. I will be sure to add this version restriction to my packages (which technically I should be doing anyway since this function didn't exist in early versions of `tools`.)
In my experience, you *can* store stuff in those directories, but you are required to clean up after yourself in CRAN checks. In other words, if something is left behind when the check ends, CRAN won't be happy. I?aki
Cheers, Carl --- Carl Boettiger http://carlboettiger.info/ On Wed, Jun 28, 2023 at 12:59?PM Simon Urbanek <simon.urbanek at r-project.org> wrote:
Carl, I think your statement is false, the whole point of R_user_dir() is for packages to have a well-defined location that is allowed - from CRAN policy: "For R version 4.0 or later (hence a version dependency is required or only conditional use is possible), packages may store user-specific data, configuration and cache files in their respective user directories obtained from tools::R_user_dir(), provided that by default sizes are kept as small as possible and the contents are actively managed (including removing outdated material)." Cheers, Simon
On 28/06/2023, at 10:36 AM, Carl Boettiger <cboettig at gmail.com> wrote: tools::R_user_dir() provides configurable directories for R packages to write persistent information consistent with standard best practices relative to each supported operating systems for applications to store data, config, and cache information respectively. These standard best practices include writing to directories in the users home filespace, which is also specifically against CRAN policy. These defaults can be overridden by setting the environmental variables R_USER_DATA_DIR , R_USER_CONFIG_DIR, R_USER_CACHE_DIR, respectively. If R developers should be using the locations provided by tools::R_user_dir() in packages, why does CRAN's check procedure not set these three environmental variables to CRAN compliant location by default (e.g. tempdir())? In order to comply with CRAN policy, a package developer can obviously set these environmental variables themselves within the call for every example, every unit test, and every vignette. Is this the recommended approach or is there a better technique? Thanks for any clarification! Regards, Carl --- Carl Boettiger http://carlboettiger.info/
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I?aki ?car