support r package in sub directory

[sgratzl]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
I want to use the setup-r-dependencies action. However, my R package is not at the root directory but in a sub directory.

Describe the solution you'd like
an option in diverse actions which allows to specify the r package location with a default to ..

Describe alternatives you've considered
none

Additional context
Add any other context or screenshots about the feature request here.

[jimhester]

I have not tried this, but can you use jobs.<job_id>.defaults.run to set the default working directory for all jobs to the subdirectory?

In general we discourage people from putting R packages in subdirectories. It makes more work for your users and yourself, as even if a given tool supports subdirectories it is never the default.

[jarupatj]

I tried defaults.run and it does not work. Can we modify these actions to accept working-directory as additional parameters?

jobs:
  R:
    runs-on: ${{ matrix.os }}
    name: R - ${{ matrix.os }} (${{ matrix.r-version }})
    strategy:
      fail-fast: false
      matrix:
        r-version: [3.5]
        os: [windows-latest, ubuntu-latest]

    defaults:
      run:
        working-directory: ./R

[gaborcsardi]

Does #441 and #445 solve your issue?

[gaborcsardi]

OK, with some recent changes this more or less works in the v2 tag. You have to pass the working directory to setup-r-dependencies and check-r-package:

      - uses: r-lib/actions/setup-r-dependencies@v2-branch
        with:
          extra-packages: any::rcmdcheck
          needs: check
          working-directory: subdir/dotenv

      - uses: r-lib/actions/check-r-package@v2-branch
        with:
          working-directory: subdir/dotenv

and possibly modify steps like "Show testthat output" and "Upload check results" steps if you want them.
I think I'll incorporate those in the check action and then you won't need to call them explicitly.

[github-actions]

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