Support for named remote dependencies

[msteijaert]

The pak package supports packages names in the Remotes field.
In fact, for local dependencies that is even required, as https://pak.r-lib.org/reference/pak_package_sources.html mentions:

For local:: dependencies, you always need to specify the package name explicitly. E.g. pins=local::~/works/pins.

In an example package, I could confirm that this is compatible with e.g., pak::pkg_sysreqs() and pak::local_deps(). However, when I use the same package (and DESCRIPTION file) with remotes::install_local(), I get an error:

> remotes::install_local("/path/to/myPackage")
Error: Failed to install 'myPackage' from local:
  Unknown remote type: myDependency=local
  object 'myDependency=local_remote' of mode 'function' was not found

Is it possible to add support for this explicit name to the remotes package?

[gaborcsardi]

Can you show an example? E.g. a package in a GitHub repository that does not work with with remotes?

[msteijaert]

Can you show an example? E.g. a package in a GitHub repository that does not work with with remotes?

@gaborcsardi , I have added a few example packages here: https://github.com/msteijaert/r_dependency_examples
After setting the root directory of my local clone of this repository as my working directory, I can successfully run pak::local_deps("~/git/r_dependency_examples/package1") . However, when I run remotes::install_local("~/git/r_dependency_examples/package1"), I get an error:

> remotes::install_local("~/git/r_dependency_examples/package1")
Error: Failed to install 'package1' from local:
  Unknown remote type: package2=local
  object 'package2=local_remote' of mode 'function' was not found

I have retried with full paths, but the error persists.

If I remove the package names from the Remotes field, remotes::install_local works fine, but pak::local_deps is no longer able to find the remotes matching the package names in the Imports field.

[dylanhmorris]

Noting that I have also run into this incompatibility between the Remotes: field syntax that remotes expects and the corresponding syntax that pak expects. Workarounds are possible but I agree that supporting named local dependencies in remotes would be a nice feature.

I note that remotes does appear to support named Github dependencies if they are specified as:

Remotes:
    <name>=<repo>[/<subdir>]

(link to example)

but not if they are specified in the form:

Remotes:
    <name>=github::<repo>[/<subdir>]

(link to example)

I have modified @msteijaert's example package1 to demonstrate (see links above).

The non-working example throws a similar error to that thrown with a named local:: remote.

> remotes::install_local('.')
Error: Failed to install 'package5' from local:
  Unknown remote type: shinyproxy=github
  object 'shinyproxy=github_remote' of mode 'function' was not found

[gaborcsardi]

Out of curiosity, why are you using remotes? Why not use pak instead?

[msteijaert]

Out of curiosity, why are you using remotes? Why not use pak instead?

I like to be able to use the same package with both pak and remotes. E.g., that allows me to switch between pak and remotes depending on the use-case (e.g. local development, CI/CD, dockerized deployment of Shiny apps). The two main advantages of remotes are that it is lightweight and that it allows installing specific versions for certain packages.

[gaborcsardi]

The two main advantages of remotes are that it is lightweight and that it allows installing specific versions for certain packages.

pak has no dependencies and we provide self-contained pak binaries that even bundle the SSL certificates.

pak also supports installing specific versions of packages.

[msteijaert]

pak also supports installing specific versions of packages.

Thanks for this information. I could not find it in the pak documentation, but indeed it turns out that one can use
pak::pkg_install("[email protected]") as a replacement for remotes::install_version("data.table",version = "1.15.0").

[gaborcsardi]

I could not find it in the pak documentation

See https://pak.r-lib.org/reference/pak_package_sources.html#cran-packages-cran-