CODEWITHSUNDEEP
rr-packagevignette
Rosalie Bruel
Rosalie Bruel

Reputation: 1493

Cannot install vignette from an R package on GitHub

I coded an R package that is hosted on my GitHub. I included a vignette, and I can install the package and load the vignette without any issue from R and RStudio by doing:

devtools::install_github("rosalieb/serac", build_vignettes = TRUE)
library(serac)
vignette("serac")

However, I have a few colleagues who cannot install the vignette (the only way they can download the package is by doing devtools::install_github("rosalieb/serac") (default of build_vignettes is FALSE). It works if they use RStudio, but not in 'regular' R.

I encourage people to use RStudio, but I cannot force them, and eventually, I do not understand why it would work in 'regular' R for me but not for them.

They tried to install pandoc, knitr, Rtools - none of these worked.

Here is the error message when my colleague tries to install the package with the vignette:

v  checking for file 'C:\Temp\RtmpO8YwVb\remotesf9842f1431\rosalieb-serac-46a3587/DESCRIPTION'

 
 
 
-  preparing 'serac':
   checking DESCRIPTION meta-information ...
 
   checking DESCRIPTION meta-information ...
 
v  checking DESCRIPTION meta-information

 
 
 
-  installing the package to build vignettes

 
 
 
   creating vignettes ...
 
   creating vignettes ...
 
E  creating vignettes (4.9s)
   --- re-building 'serac.Rmd' using rmarkdown
   Error: processing vignette 'serac.Rmd' failed with diagnostics:
   Pandoc is required to build R Markdown vignettes but not available. Please make sure it is installed.
   --- failed re-building 'serac.Rmd'
   
   RESUME : le traitement du fichier suivant a échoué :
     'serac.Rmd'
   
   Erreur : Vignette re-building failed.
   Exécution arrêtée

Erreur : Failed to install 'serac' from GitHub:
  System command 'Rcmd.exe' failed, exit status: 1, stdout & stderr were printed

Thanks in advance for your help!

Upvotes: 2

Views: 1744

Answers (1)

user2554330
user2554330

Reputation: 44897

The message indicates that rmarkdown::render can't find Pandoc.

It looks for it in three places: in the directory specified by the RSTUDIO_PANDOC environment variable, in directories on the PATH, in the directory opt/pandoc in the user's home directory. So your colleagues who have installed it should make sure it is available in one of those locations. They can see the current values of the environment variables by running

Sys.getenv("PATH")

and

Sys.getenv("RSTUDIO_PANDOC")

Temporary changes can be made using

Sys.setenv(RSTUDIO_PANDOC="/path/to/pandoc/directory")

This needs to happen in the session that is trying to install the package and build the vignette, not in the vignette itself.

How to make permanent changes to those values depends on the details of what system they are running.

Upvotes: 4

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