Compressing data for package builds

Hi,

I have two  .rda files that I need to include in a package.  I've placed
them both in a data directory
after  save()  the are around  150Kb  each.

When I try to check the package I get the following warning

Warning: large data file(s) saved inefficiently:
               size ASCII compress
 zagoskin.rda 137Kb FALSE     none

 Note: significantly better compression could be obtained
       by using R CMD build --resave-data
              old_size new_size compress
 modpoll.rda     124Kb     78Kb       xz
 zagoskin.rda    137Kb      6Kb    bzip2

Both of these files modpoll.rda and zagoskin.rda  have already been
compressed from megabytes down to Kb.

Also,, the  instructions    "R CMD build --resave-data"  doesnt do anything
that I can see so I must be using it wrong.

Is there a piece of the puzzle I am missing or instructions better than
these: I tried  LazyDataCompression and my
data.rdb is 90Kb.

"Package *tools* has a couple of functions to help with data images:
checkRdaFiles reports on the way the image was saved, and resaveRdaFiles will
re-save with a different type of compression, including choosing the best
type for that particular image.

Some packages using ?LazyData? will benefit from using a form of
compression other than gzip in the installed lazy-loading database. This
can be selected by the --data-compress option to R CMD INSTALL or by using
the ?LazyDataCompression? field in the DESCRIPTION file. Useful values are
bzip2, xz and the default, gzip. The only way to discover which is best is
to try them all and look at the size of the pkgname/data/Rdata.rdb file."

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" R CMD build is how you preferably should be creating your package tar
ball, so you simply add the --resave-data argument to your already existing
R CMD build call which creates the tar ball from your source directory. So
can you elaborate on "doesn't do anything I can see"? In what sense? No
output? No compression? "

my tarball builds with   > R CDM build mattools

where mattools is the name of the package. and I get a warning on R CMD
check.

Things I tried

R CMD build --resave-data
R CMD build mattools --resave-data
R CMD build --resave-data mattools

The first does nothing, the second fails on unknown options and the third
fails on unknown options. So I  found the help for R CMD

Now that I figured out how to display help for  R CMD build  I see that

--resave-data   must include a specification of the type of compression

--resave-data="best"   for example

I ran that.  and got the same error indicating that the   rda file had not
been compressed.

  checking data for non-ASCII characters ... OK
* checking data for ASCII and uncompressed saves ... WARNING
   Warning: large data file(s) saved inefficiently:
                 size ASCII compress
   zagoskin.rda 137Kb FALSE     none

   Note: significantly better compression could be obtained
         by using R CMD build --resave-data
                old_size new_size compress
   modpoll.rda     124Kb     78Kb       xz
   zagoskin.rda    137Kb      6Kb    bzip2

Building under windows so I wonder if I am missing a system file required
to do the compression.

On Thu, Aug 16, 2012 at 5:48 PM, Simon Urbanek
<simon.urbanek at r-project.org>wrote:

On Aug 16, 2012, at 5:08 PM, steven mosher wrote:

Hi,

I have two  .rda files that I need to include in a package.  I've placed
them both in a data directory
after  save()  the are around  150Kb  each.

When I try to check the package I get the following warning

Warning: large data file(s) saved inefficiently:
                size ASCII compress
  zagoskin.rda 137Kb FALSE     none

  Note: significantly better compression could be obtained
        by using R CMD build --resave-data
               old_size new_size compress
  modpoll.rda     124Kb     78Kb       xz
  zagoskin.rda    137Kb      6Kb    bzip2

Both of these files modpoll.rda and zagoskin.rda  have already been
compressed from megabytes down to Kb.

Also,, the  instructions    "R CMD build --resave-data"  doesnt do

anything

that I can see so I must be using it wrong.

R CMD build is how you preferably should be creating your package tar
ball, so you simply add the --resave-data argument to your already existing
R CMD build call which creates the tar ball from your source directory. So
can you elaborate on "doesn't do anything I can see"? In what sense? No
output? No compression?

Cheers,
Simon

Is there a piece of the puzzle I am missing or instructions better than
these: I tried  LazyDataCompression and my
data.rdb is 90Kb.

"Package *tools* has a couple of functions to help with data images:
checkRdaFiles reports on the way the image was saved, and resaveRdaFiles

will

re-save with a different type of compression, including choosing the best
type for that particular image.

Some packages using ?LazyData? will benefit from using a form of
compression other than gzip in the installed lazy-loading database. This
can be selected by the --data-compress option to R CMD INSTALL or by

using

the ?LazyDataCompression? field in the DESCRIPTION file. Useful values

are

bzip2, xz and the default, gzip. The only way to discover which is best

is

to try them all and look at the size of the pkgname/data/Rdata.rdb file."

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