could 'install_deps()' work within project sub-directory?

[kevinushey]

E.g.

> devtools::install_deps()
Warning in read.dcf(path) :
  cannot open compressed file '/Users/kevin/r/pkg/Rcpp/inst/unitTests/DESCRIPTION', probable reason 'No such file or directory'
Error in read.dcf(path) : cannot open the connection

I was briefly working in the inst/unitTests folder for Rcpp; discovered I was missing some development dependencies, and was hoping an install_deps() would do the trick. It'd be nice if this function looked upwards for a package root + associated DESCRIPTION file.

[jimhester]

This is how it used to work when install_deps() was in devtools, but the functions in remotes don't do this so we no longer have this functionality.

One way to get it back is to use devtools::package_file(), e.g.

devtools::install_deps(devtools::package_file())

[kevinushey]

Do you think devtools / remotes should do this? Could they use rprojroot::find_package_root_file() as a default? Or should I just learn to live with the change in behavior?

[kevinushey]

Thanks!