Add tempdir() to avoid unwanted package file writing

[RLumSK]

Background

Calling create_codemeta(use_filesize = TRUE) (the default) uses pkgbuild::build() to build the package and estimates its file size.

Unfortunately, it does not clean-up after and leaves unwanted files behind in the user's home filespace (here in the parent directory). While doing so, the package violates the CRAN policy:

Packages should not write in the user’s home filespace (including clipboards)

Solution

pkgbuild::build() provides the argument dest_path. This argument can be set to tempdir() to avoid the trouble, which is the solution I propose with my PR.

Further remarks

Besides it might be reasonable to make create_codemeta(use_filesize = FALSE) the default (not part of my PR). If a package contains a lot of code to compile it takes quite some time, and the reason for the waiting time is not immanently obvious.

[RLumSK]

The AppVeyor errors are not related to my commit; the VM cannot initialise due to a bad gateway (error 502). Probably is helps to re-run the check.

[cboettig]

Thanks, completely agree with your points here.

Also, I completely agree with the case for making use_filesize = FALSE the default. Eventually a more reasonable strategy for estimating the file size might be appropriate anyway (e.g. computing the total file size of the source repo would perhaps be sufficient). Like you say, actually building the package seems like an overly aggressive side-effect.

• Can you go ahead and swap the default, updating the roxygen docs as well?
• Can you also add yourself as a ctb in DESCRIPTION?
• Can you also make a mention of these changes in NEWS.md, linking this PR?

🙏 Many thanks!

[RLumSK]

Done. Regarding the file size, my suggestion would be something like this:

sum(file.size(
  list.files(
    ".",
    recursive = TRUE,
    full.names = TRUE,
    all.files = FALSE
  )
)) / 1000

It takes on my computer (five years old) 1.5 ms to compute and it is more realistic than the package size after the package was built, which depends too much on compiler settings. Side effect, if I do not overlook something, it would also remove the dependency to 'pkgbuild'.

[cboettig]

@RLumSK Thanks, these changes look great. If you'd like, I'd be happy to include the revised file-size calculation and drop the pkgbuild dependency all together.

[RLumSK]

Done. Besides, I kept the newly set default values for use_filesize (FALSE). The file size is a rough estimation only and as written above, it depends on the platform and the compiler settings a package is installed. However, feel free to set it back to TRUE if you like this more.

[cboettig]

Very nice, thanks for this!