`Error in if (type == "binary") { : argument is of length zero` in `devtools::install()` dependencies under Windows.

[ConorIA]

I have a colleague who was trying to install a package I have on GitLab, but the install couldn't proceed without first manually installing the dependencies. She is using Windows. Unfortunately I forgot to ask her for session info. The input was this:

pkg_name <- "canadaHCDx"
branch = "master"
url <- paste0("https://gitlab.com/ConorIA/", pkg_name, "/-/archive/", branch, "/", pkg_name, "-", branch, ".zip")
f <- tempfile()
d <- tempdir()
download.file(url, f)
unzip(f, exdir = d)
devtools::install(file.path(d, paste(pkg_name, branch, sep = "-")), dependencies = TRUE)

The output presented a series of dependencies to install, as expected:

These packages have more recent versions available.
Which would you like to update?
1: canadaHCD (0505b3f31... -> efe3209be...) [GitHub]
2: ggplot2 (3.0.0 -> 3.1.0 ) [CRAN]
3: httr (1.3.1 -> 1.4.0 ) [CRAN]
4: jsonlite (1.5 -> 1.6 ) [CRAN]
5: markdown (0.8 -> 0.9 ) [CRAN]
6: openssl (1.0.2 -> 1.2.1 ) [CRAN]
7: stringi (1.1.7 -> 1.2.4 ) [CRAN]
8: tibble (1.4.2 -> 2.0.1 ) [CRAN]
9: CRAN packages only
10: All
11: None
Enter one or more numbers separated by spaces, or an empty line to cancel

No matter what selection was chosen, the ensuing command failed with:

Installing 28 packages: gbRd, geosphere, ggplot2, gridExtra, htmlwidgets, httpuv, httr, jsonlite, later, leaflet, markdown, openssl, png, praise, promises, rappdirs, raster, Rdpack, rex, shiny, sourcetools, sp, storr, stringi, testthat, tibble, viridis, xtable

Error in if (type == "binary") { : argument is of length zero

We did get it to install by installing all of the dependencies via install.packages(), and then running the devtools::install() line again.

Was this user error on our side? If not, it seems to be something in the devtools dependency installer code. I did search in the closed issues, but if this is an old bug, I apologize.

[jimhester]

This likely was an issue with options("pkgType") being NULL.

[ConorIA]

Thanks for the tip @jimhester. I only run Linux, and I guess getOption("pkgType") defaults to "source". The code in question is a quick install script for some packages I have hosted on GitLab. Would something like getOption("pkgType", "both") be a safe workaround to allow cross-platform installs?

[sdhutchins]

I just got this issue while creating a new r library to test my package installing.

> options("pkgType")
$`pkgType`
[1] "both"

I'm not sure what's causing this but I thought I'd add my comment. I'm also using Windows 7.

> sessionInfo()
R version 3.5.1 (2018-07-02)
Platform: x86_64-w64-mingw32/x64 (64-bit)
Running under: Windows 7 x64 (build 7601) Service Pack 1

Matrix products: default

locale:
[1] LC_COLLATE=English_United States.1252  LC_CTYPE=English_United States.1252    LC_MONETARY=English_United States.1252
[4] LC_NUMERIC=C                           LC_TIME=English_United States.1252    

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

loaded via a namespace (and not attached):
 [1] Rcpp_1.0.0         rstudioapi_0.9.0   magrittr_1.5       usethis_1.4.0      devtools_2.0.1     pkgload_1.0.2     
 [7] R6_2.4.0           rlang_0.3.1        tools_3.5.1        pkgbuild_1.0.2     packrat_0.5.0      sessioninfo_1.1.1 
[13] cli_1.0.1          withr_2.1.2        remotes_2.0.2.9000 assertthat_0.2.0   digest_0.6.18      rprojroot_1.3-2   
[19] crayon_1.3.4       processx_3.2.1     callr_3.1.1        clisymbols_1.2.0   fs_1.2.6           ps_1.3.0          
[25] curl_3.3           testthat_2.0.1     memoise_1.1.0      glue_1.3.0.9000    compiler_3.5.1     desc_1.2.0        
[31] backports_1.1.3    prettyunits_1.0.2 

[ConorIA]

@sdhutchins, does your package have any remotes dependencies in the description? That is the only thing that is different about the package of mine that is failing to build, compared with those that build no problem.

[antoine-sachet]

@ConorIA If your remote dependencies are on a different domain (e.g. your package on gitlab with deps on github), then your gitlab credentials (host and token) are used to connect to github which obviously fails. See #337

[wlandau]

I just started seeing this here after r-lib/devtools#2020 was fixed. Any tips for Travis CI?

[jimhester]

It might require a patch release of remotes, I have been unable to reproduce reliably until now, but I am also getting it in https://travis-ci.org/jimhester/vroom/builds/517979475, so I should be able to track it down.

[fernandomayer]

I'm getting the same here: https://travis-ci.org/leg-ufpr/estbas/builds/517993870#L1540

[rkrug]

If this helps: I can confirm this error here now: https://travis-ci.com/Exp-Micro-Ecol-Hub/emeScheme/builds/107620556

[pat-s]

It also appears when running it locally.

remotes::install_deps(dependencies = T)
These packages have more recent versions available.
Which would you like to update?

1:   All
2:   CRAN packages only
3:   None
4:   rcmdcheck (1.3.2 -> 702723cdf...) [GitHub]
5:   rlang     (0.3.3 -> 0.3.4       ) [CRAN]
6:   usethis   (1.4.0 -> 1.5.0       ) [CRAN]

Enter one or more numbers separated by spaces, or an empty line to cancel
1: 1
rcmdcheck (1.3.2 -> 702723cdf...) [GitHub]
drat      (NA    -> 0.1.5       ) [CRAN]
rlang     (0.3.3 -> 0.3.4       ) [CRAN]
usethis   (1.4.0 -> 1.5.0       ) [CRAN]
Installing 3 packages: drat, rlang, usethis
Error in if (type == "binary") { : argument is of length zero

[jimhester]

This is fixed in #340

You can add the following to your travis configuration until this is fixed in the CRAN release of remotes.

r_github_packages: r-lib/remotes#340