Hi, you can use the remotes package (that devtools itself uses under the hood), and set the R_REMOTES_STANDALONE="true" environment variable. Then remotes will not use any packages to perform the downloads and the installations. See more here: https://github.com/r-lib/remotes#standalone-mode
Gabor On Sat, Jun 6, 2020 at 9:24 PM Blätte, Andreas <andreas.blae...@uni-due.de> wrote: > > Dear colleagues, > > using devtools::install_github() is suggested frequently to install the > development version of a package from GitHub. > > But there is a nasty scenario on Windows when the package to be installed > from GitHub has curl as a dependency and if a new version of curl or > backports is available. The user will be prompted whether the outdated > packages shall be updated. Users will usually confirm to update all CRAN > packages. But after downloading the binaries, the installation will fail with > a message that curl cannot be removed. > > My understanding of the issue is as follows: devtools has curl as a > dependency. When calling devtools::install_github() or > remotes::install_github(), the curl package is attached. This implies loading > the curl DLL. The dll file is then non-writable, if my analysis is correct. > If (a) the package to be installed from GitHub has curl as a dependency and > if (b) the curl version present on the users’ system needs to be updated and > if (c) the user agrees to perform the update, the binary is downloaded > successfully, but installing the newer version of curl will fail, because > loading the curl DLL has been triggered when attaching devtools and the DLL > file is write-protected. > > This is the line that has caused my headaches: > devtools::install_github(“PolMine/cwbtools”, ref = “dev”) > The cwbtools package has curl as a dependency, and it was curl v4.2 that was > installed, the newest version is v4.3. > > First, I am interested whether you think my analysis is correct. Second, I > would appreciate your advice on good practice to deal with this scenario! > > My idea so far is to amend the README file, telling users (a) to reject > updating dependencies if curl is to be updated or alternatively (b) to > recommend the snippet ` devtools::install_github(“PolMine/cwbtools”, ref = > “dev”, upgrade = “never”)` for GithHub-installations and a manual update of > dependencies. > > I tend to think this is not an uncommon issue for Windows users. Something > like this may occur whenever a package is to be installed from GitHub that > has common dependency with devtools that needs to be updated. The error > message is very hard to understand for “human” users and it is hard to find > the solution for “human” users. Recommendations welcome! > > Kind regards > Andreas > > -- > Prof. Dr. Andreas Blätte > Professor of Public Policy and Regional Politics > University of Duisburg-Essen > > [[alternative HTML version deleted]] > > ______________________________________________ > R-package-devel@r-project.org mailing list > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-package-devel ______________________________________________ R-package-devel@r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-package-devel
