[R-pkg-devel] Proper way to ask a user to set permanent variables?

Folks:

My package gdalUtils is a wrapper for a set of binaries on disk (the GDAL Utilities) -- these have about as many places to install as there are people installing it, and the system environment variables aren't always much help (they aren't always set) for locating them.  My package is trying to dummy-proof the usage as much as possible, so one of the things it does is if it can't find the install, it goes search for the install in, first, standard locations and runs a short test to see if the install is valid and, if not, goes on a longer hunt.  Right now, it does this search everytime someone boots up R and uses it, which slows down the process.

What I'm wondering is twofold:

1) Are there any packages/methods by which user "preferences" are saved that don't require saving workspaces (e.g. does R have a standardized "preferences" location that packages can use).

2) If the answer to #1 is "no", what is the preferred method for saving variables for use by packages that are always restored on boot -- e.g. I was thinking something like .Renviron but I think that's Rstudio only.  I'm concerned with workspace-type saves since I feel like that often results in a ton of variables being saved.

Folks:

My package gdalUtils is a wrapper for a set of binaries on disk (the GDAL Utilities) -- these have about as many places to install as there are people installing it, and the system environment variables aren't always much help (they aren't always set) for locating them.  My package is trying to dummy-proof the usage as much as possible, so one of the things it does is if it can't find the install, it goes search for the install in, first, standard locations and runs a short test to see if the install is valid and, if not, goes on a longer hunt.  Right now, it does this search everytime someone boots up R and uses it, which slows down the process.

What I'm wondering is twofold:

1) Are there any packages/methods by which user "preferences" are saved that don't require saving workspaces (e.g. does R have a standardized "preferences" location that packages can use).

2) If the answer to #1 is "no", what is the preferred method for saving variables for use by packages that are always restored on boot -- e.g. I was thinking something like .Renviron but I think that's Rstudio only.  I'm concerned with workspace-type saves since I feel like that often results in a ton of variables being saved.

Thanks!

--j

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On 14 Jan 2020, at 17:34, G?bor Cs?rdi <csardi.gabor at gmail.com> wrote:

You can use the rappdirs package to look up the standard places for
permanent config, cache etc. files. E.g. on macOS:

? rappdirs::user_cache_dir()
[1] "/Users/gaborcsardi/Library/Caches"

Gabor

On Tue, Jan 14, 2020 at 4:10 PM Jonathan Greenberg <jgreenberg at unr.edu> wrote:

Folks:

My package gdalUtils is a wrapper for a set of binaries on disk (the GDAL Utilities) -- these have about as many places to install as there are people installing it, and the system environment variables aren't always much help (they aren't always set) for locating them.  My package is trying to dummy-proof the usage as much as possible, so one of the things it does is if it can't find the install, it goes search for the install in, first, standard locations and runs a short test to see if the install is valid and, if not, goes on a longer hunt.  Right now, it does this search everytime someone boots up R and uses it, which slows down the process.

What I'm wondering is twofold:

1) Are there any packages/methods by which user "preferences" are saved that don't require saving workspaces (e.g. does R have a standardized "preferences" location that packages can use).

2) If the answer to #1 is "no", what is the preferred method for saving variables for use by packages that are always restored on boot -- e.g. I was thinking something like .Renviron but I think that's Rstudio only.  I'm concerned with workspace-type saves since I feel like that often results in a ton of variables being saved.

Thanks!

--j

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On 15 Jan 2020, at 23:47, Dirk Eddelbuettel <edd at debian.org> wrote:


Jonathan,

In all but one (maybe two?) of my packages I found relying on options()
sufficient. I usually follow the somewhat-common pattern of creating a
package-local environment in R/init.R or R/zzz.R. I then fill it with values
reflecting options() (often under a tag starting with the package name)
and/or environment variables, and sometime also provide 'setters' to update
the environment values. That have proven to be both good enough and rather
robust and, as an added benefit, does not depend on anything further.

Cheers, Dirk

-- 
http://dirk.eddelbuettel.com | @eddelbuettel | edd at debian.org

Hi Dirk,

The package-local environment is definitely a good approach (I use it
myself an a few packages). And the options() are nice as they represent a
standardised interface in R (Note to myself: I should use these more in my
packages).

But unless I am missing something, these are not persistent between
sessions? I assume, that is not an issue in your case?

Cheers,

Rainer

On 15 Jan 2020, at 23:47, Dirk Eddelbuettel <edd at debian.org> wrote:


Jonathan,

In all but one (maybe two?) of my packages I found relying on options()
sufficient. I usually follow the somewhat-common pattern of creating a
package-local environment in R/init.R or R/zzz.R. I then fill it with

values

reflecting options() (often under a tag starting with the package name)
and/or environment variables, and sometime also provide 'setters' to

update

the environment values. That have proven to be both good enough and

rather

robust and, as an added benefit, does not depend on anything further.

Cheers, Dirk

--
http://dirk.eddelbuettel.com | @eddelbuettel | edd at debian.org

--
Rainer M. Krug, PhD (Conservation Ecology, SUN), MSc (Conservation
Biology, UCT), Dipl. Phys. (Germany)

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University of Z?rich
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