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Set up package dependencies for compatibility with renv

Source: R/tar_renv.R
tar_renv.Rd

Write package dependencies to a script file (by default, named _targets_packages.R in the root project directory). Each package is written to a separate line as a standard library() call (e.g. library(package)) so renv can identify them automatically. The following packages are included:

* Packages listed in the `packages` argument of [tar_target()]
  or [tar_option_set()].
* Packages required by the `format` set in [tar_target()]
  or [tar_option_set()].
* Packages directly listed in the `extras` argument of [tar_renv()].

Usage

tar_renv(
  extras = c("bslib", "crew", "gt", "markdown", "rstudioapi", "shiny", "shinybusy",
    "shinyWidgets", "visNetwork"),
  path = "_targets_packages.R",
  callr_function = callr::r,
  callr_arguments = targets::tar_callr_args_default(callr_function),
  envir = parent.frame(),
  script = targets::tar_config_get("script")
)

Arguments

extras

Character vector of additional packages to declare as project dependencies.

path

Character of length 1, path to the script file to populate with library() calls.

callr_function

A function from callr to start a fresh clean R process to do the work. Set to NULL to run in the current session instead of an external process (but restart your R session just before you do in order to clear debris out of the global environment). callr_function needs to be NULL for interactive debugging, e.g. tar_option_set(debug = "your_target"). However, callr_function should not be NULL for serious reproducible work.

callr_arguments

A list of arguments to callr_function.

envir

An environment, where to run the target R script (default: _targets.R) if callr_function is NULL. Ignored if callr_function is anything other than NULL. callr_function should only be NULL for debugging and testing purposes, not for serious runs of a pipeline, etc.

The envir argument of tar_make() and related functions always overrides the current value of tar_option_get("envir") in the current R session just before running the target script file, so whenever you need to set an alternative envir, you should always set it with tar_option_set() from within the target script file. In other words, if you call tar_option_set(envir = envir1) in an interactive session and then tar_make(envir = envir2, callr_function = NULL), then envir2 will be used.

script

Character of length 1, path to the target script file. Defaults to tar_config_get("script"), which in turn defaults to _targets.R. When you set this argument, the value of tar_config_get("script") is temporarily changed for the current function call. See tar_script(), tar_config_get(), and tar_config_set() for details about the target script file and how to set it persistently for a project.

Value

Nothing, invisibly.

Details

This function gets called for its side-effect, which writes package dependencies to a script for compatibility with renv. The generated file should not be edited by hand and will be overwritten each time tar_renv() is called.

The behavior of renv is to create and manage a project-local R library and keep a record of project dependencies in a file called renv.lock. To identify dependencies, renv crawls through code to find packages explicitly mentioned using library(), require(), or ::. However, targets pipelines introduce extra package dependencies through the packages and format arguments of tar_option_set() and tar_target(). tar_renv() writes a special R script which allows these extra packages (along with packages listed in extras) to be detected by renv.

With the script written by tar_renv(), renv is able to crawl the file to identify package dependencies (with renv::dependencies()). tar_renv() only serves to make your targets project compatible with renv, it is still the users responsibility to call renv::init() and renv::snapshot() directly to initialize and manage a project-local R library. This allows your targets pipeline to have its own self-contained R library separate from your standard R library. See https://rstudio.github.io/renv/index.html for more information.

Performance

If you use renv, then overhead from project initialization could slow down tar_make() and friends. If you experience slowness, please make sure your renv library is on a fast file system. (For example, slow network drives can severely reduce performance.) In addition, you can disable the slowest renv initialization checks. After confirming at https://rstudio.github.io/renv/reference/config.html that you can safely disable these checks, you can write lines RENV_CONFIG_SANDBOX_ENABLED=false and RENV_CONFIG_SYNCHRONIZED_CHECK=false in your user-level .Renviron file. If you disable the synchronization check, remember to call renv::status() periodically to check the health of your renv project library.

See also

https://rstudio.github.io/renv/articles/renv.html

Other scripts: tar_edit(), tar_github_actions(), tar_helper(), tar_script()

Examples

tar_dir({ # tar_dir() runs code from a temp dir for CRAN.
  tar_script({
    library(targets)
    library(tarchetypes)
    tar_option_set(packages = c("tibble", "qs"))
    list()
  }, ask = FALSE)
  tar_renv()
  writeLines(readLines("_targets_packages.R"))
})
#> # Generated by targets::tar_renv(): do not edit by hand
#> library(bslib)
#> library(crew)
#> library(gt)
#> library(markdown)
#> library(qs)
#> library(rstudioapi)
#> library(shiny)
#> library(shinyWidgets)
#> library(shinybusy)
#> library(tibble)
#> library(visNetwork)
tar_option_reset()