Unable to update metadata cache when using enterprise CRAN mirror

[timmsm]

Artifactory's enterprise CRAN mirror currently has a bug where the mirror has a PACKAGES file but not PACKAGES.gz. Would it be possible to add a HEAD request to cmc__get_cache_files to check if PACKAGES.gz exists in the specified CRAN repo and, if not, fall back to PACKAGES (which should exist in every CRAN repo)?

This affects both pkgcache::meta_cache_list() and pkgcache::cranlike_metadata_cache$new()$list().

[gaborcsardi]

cmc__get_cache_files() cannot make HEAD requests, that's a local function, it is not doing HTTP.

But of course it is possible to fix this, although I am not sure how many people use this CRAN mirror, which is clearly not a real mirror if the PACKAGES.gz file is missing?

[timmsm]

You're definitely right that this is kind of a niche issue. Outside of my current context, I have no idea how many Artifactory users there are or how many users in general are stuck using some kind of wonky CRAN-like enterprise mirror.

However, if it's just a quick fix (maybe either a defensive HEAD request or catching the 404 and trying again) it would be greatly appreciated as it would help sidestep this family of errors and would remove one of the blockers for using pak (which I'm super excited about!) in our dev environment.

I'd also be more than happy to submit a PR for you to review!

[gaborcsardi]

Sure, a PR sounds great!

[gaborcsardi]

Closed by #27.