devtools::check() creating warning that only contains NULL

[rossdrucker]

I'm currently doing some work on a package, and calling devtools::check() is producing the following warning:

❯ checking Rd files ... WARNING
  NULL

However, when manually inspecting each of the .Rd files created by devtools::document() and re-reading the documentation, I don't see why this warning is appearing. I've run rcmdcheck::rcmdcheck() (which seems to be called by devtools::check() which doesn't produce the warning, and when I build and check the package from my terminal running

R CMD BATCH pkgname
R CMD CHECK pkgname_version.tar.gz

I don't get the warning either.

In terms of system setup, I've upgraded devtools to 2.4.4 and rcmdcheck to 1.4.0 and am running this on R 4.2.1. I don't have any reprex code since this seems to be happening when checking the entire directory, but this does seem to be reproducible by creating a new package project in RStudio (File > New Project > New Directory > R Package) and calling devtools::check() on the template package before changing any code.

I know it's only a warning and doesn't impact the functionality of the package, but I can't figure out where this is coming from. Happy to provide additional information as necessary as well.

Any help/insight would be greatly appreciated!

[gaborcsardi]

Can you show us a package that reproduces this?

[rossdrucker]

Running devtools::check() on the package attached here produces the following output:

══ Building ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
Setting env vars:
• CFLAGS    : -Wall -pedantic -fdiagnostics-color=always
• CXXFLAGS  : -Wall -pedantic -fdiagnostics-color=always
• CXX11FLAGS: -Wall -pedantic -fdiagnostics-color=always
• CXX14FLAGS: -Wall -pedantic -fdiagnostics-color=always
• CXX17FLAGS: -Wall -pedantic -fdiagnostics-color=always
• CXX20FLAGS: -Wall -pedantic -fdiagnostics-color=always
✔  checking for file ‘/Users/rossdrucker/Documents/reprexpkg/DESCRIPTION’ ...
─  preparing ‘reprexpkg’:
✔  checking DESCRIPTION meta-information
─  checking for LF line-endings in source and make files and shell scripts
─  checking for empty or unneeded directories
   Omitted ‘LazyData’ from DESCRIPTION
─  building ‘reprexpkg_0.1.0.tar.gz’
   
══ Checking ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
Setting env vars:
• _R_CHECK_CRAN_INCOMING_REMOTE_: FALSE
• _R_CHECK_CRAN_INCOMING_       : FALSE
• _R_CHECK_FORCE_SUGGESTS_      : FALSE
• NOT_CRAN                      : true
── R CMD check ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
─  using log directory ‘/private/var/folders/zs/pmdcdv8j1pj62m1lj7rkbj500000gn/T/RtmpPlhN4V/reprexpkg.Rcheck’
─  using R version 4.2.1 (2022-06-23)
─  using platform: x86_64-apple-darwin17.0 (64-bit)
─  using session charset: UTF-8
─  using options ‘--no-manual --as-cran’
✔  checking for file ‘reprexpkg/DESCRIPTION’ ...
─  checking extension type ... Package
─  this is package ‘reprexpkg’ version ‘0.1.0’
─  package encoding: UTF-8
✔  checking package namespace information
✔  checking package dependencies (1.5s)
✔  checking if this is a source package
✔  checking if there is a namespace
✔  checking for executable files ...
✔  checking for hidden files and directories
✔  checking for portable file names
✔  checking for sufficient/correct file permissions ...
✔  checking serialization versions
✔  checking whether package ‘reprexpkg’ can be installed (1.5s)
✔  checking installed package size ...
✔  checking package directory ...
✔  checking for future file timestamps ...
✔  checking DESCRIPTION meta-information ...
✔  checking top-level files
✔  checking for left-over files
✔  checking index information
✔  checking package subdirectories ...
✔  checking R files for non-ASCII characters ...
✔  checking R files for syntax errors ...
✔  checking whether the package can be loaded ...
✔  checking whether the package can be loaded with stated dependencies ...
✔  checking whether the package can be unloaded cleanly ...
✔  checking whether the namespace can be loaded with stated dependencies ...
✔  checking whether the namespace can be unloaded cleanly ...
✔  checking loading without being on the library search path ...
✔  checking dependencies in R code ...
✔  checking S3 generic/method consistency (563ms)
✔  checking replacement functions ...
✔  checking foreign function calls ...
✔  checking R code for possible problems (2.7s)
W  checking Rd files ...
   NULL
✔  checking Rd metadata ...
✔  checking Rd line widths ...
✔  checking Rd cross-references ...
✔  checking for missing documentation entries ...
✔  checking for code/documentation mismatches (515ms)
✔  checking Rd \usage sections (722ms)
✔  checking Rd contents ...
✔  checking for unstated dependencies in examples ...
✔  checking examples (656ms)
✔  checking for non-standard things in the check directory
✔  checking for detritus in the temp directory
   
   See
     ‘/private/var/folders/zs/pmdcdv8j1pj62m1lj7rkbj500000gn/T/RtmpPlhN4V/reprexpkg.Rcheck/00check.log’
   for details.
   
   
── R CMD check results ─────────────────────────────────────────── reprexpkg 0.1.0 ────
Duration: 12s

❯ checking Rd files ... WARNING
  NULL

0 errors ✔ | 1 warning ✖ | 0 notes ✔

and this is my sessionInfo() in case it is helpful:

R version 4.2.1 (2022-06-23)
Platform: x86_64-apple-darwin17.0 (64-bit)
Running under: macOS Catalina 10.15.7

Matrix products: default
BLAS:   /System/Library/Frameworks/Accelerate.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/vecLib.framework/Versions/A/libBLAS.dylib
LAPACK: /Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Versions/4.2/Resources/lib/libRlapack.dylib

locale:
[1] en_US.UTF-8/en_US.UTF-8/en_US.UTF-8/C/en_US.UTF-8/en_US.UTF-8

attached base packages:
[1] stats     graphics  grDevices utils     datasets  methods   base     

loaded via a namespace (and not attached):
 [1] Rcpp_1.0.8.3      urlchecker_1.0.1  pillar_1.8.0      compiler_4.2.1   
 [5] later_1.3.0       remotes_2.4.2     profvis_0.3.7     prettyunits_1.1.1
 [9] tools_4.2.1       pkgload_1.3.0     digest_0.6.29     pkgbuild_1.3.1   
[13] memoise_2.0.1     lifecycle_1.0.1   tibble_3.1.8      pkgconfig_2.0.3  
[17] rlang_1.0.4       shiny_1.7.1       cli_3.3.0         rstudioapi_0.13  
[21] curl_4.3.2        xopen_1.0.0       fastmap_1.1.0     stringr_1.4.0    
[25] withr_2.5.0       htmlwidgets_1.5.4 desc_1.4.1        fs_1.5.2         
[29] vctrs_0.4.1       devtools_2.4.4    rprojroot_2.0.3   glue_1.6.2       
[33] R6_2.5.1          processx_3.5.3    fansi_1.0.3       rcmdcheck_1.4.0  
[37] sessioninfo_1.2.2 purrr_0.3.4       callr_3.7.0       magrittr_2.0.3   
[41] whisker_0.4       promises_1.2.0.1  ps_1.7.0          ellipsis_0.3.2   
[45] htmltools_0.5.2   usethis_2.1.6     mime_0.12         xtable_1.8-4     
[49] httpuv_1.6.5      utf8_1.2.2        stringi_1.7.6     miniUI_0.1.1.1   
[53] cachem_1.0.6      crayon_1.5.1 

reprexpkg_0.1.0.tar.gz

Please let me know what other info would be useful, and/or if there's anything I can do to help.

[gaborcsardi]

I am afraid this is an issue with base R:

❯ _R_CHECK_CRAN_INCOMING_REMOTE_=FALSE _R_CHECK_CRAN_INCOMING_=FALSE R CMD check --as-cran reprexpkg

[...]

* checking foreign function calls ... OK
* checking R code for possible problems ... OK
* checking Rd files ... WARNING
NULL
* checking Rd metadata ... OK
* checking Rd line widths ... OK

[...]

* DONE

Status: 1 WARNING
See
  ‘/private/tmp/reprexpkg.Rcheck/00check.log’
for details.