Warnings during installation are not shown

[gaborcsardi]

E.g. https://github.com/r-lib/sessioninfo/runs/3748776702?check_suite_focus=true

One way to trigger this is to unset DISPLAY and then check some package imports tcltk on macOS:

~/works/sessioninfo d611a4f...
❯ R CMD INSTALL .
* installing to library ‘/Users/gaborcsardi/Library/R/x86_64/4.1/library’
* installing *source* package ‘sessioninfo’ ...
** using staged installation
** R
** byte-compile and prepare package for lazy loading
Warning in fun(libname, pkgname) :
  no display name and no $DISPLAY environment variable
** help
*** installing help indices
** building package indices
** testing if installed package can be loaded from temporary location
Warning in fun(libname, pkgname) :
  no display name and no $DISPLAY environment variable
** testing if installed package can be loaded from final location
Warning in fun(libname, pkgname) :
  no display name and no $DISPLAY environment variable
** testing if installed package keeps a record of temporary installation path
* DONE (sessioninfo)

[kevinushey]

Maybe I'm misunderstanding something, but rcmdcheck doesn't invoke R CMD INSTALL -- it just uses R CMD build and R CMD check, so these installation errors are normally never seen.

For example, with a dummy package:

==> R CMD INSTALL --preclean --no-multiarch --with-keep.source where.errors

* installing to library ‘/Users/kevin/Library/R/arm64/4.4/library’
* installing *source* package ‘where.errors’ ...
** using staged installation
** R
** byte-compile and prepare package for lazy loading
** help
*** installing help indices
** building package indices
** testing if installed package can be loaded from temporary location
Warning in fun(libname, pkgname) :
  no display name and no $DISPLAY environment variable
** testing if installed package can be loaded from final location
Warning in fun(libname, pkgname) :
  no display name and no $DISPLAY environment variable
** testing if installed package keeps a record of temporary installation path
* DONE (where.errors)

But, with build + check:

kevin@MBP-P2MQ:~/projects
$ R CMD build where.errors
* checking for file ‘where.errors/DESCRIPTION’ ... OK
* preparing ‘where.errors’:
* checking DESCRIPTION meta-information ... OK
* checking for LF line-endings in source and make files and shell scripts
* checking for empty or unneeded directories
Omitted ‘LazyData’ from DESCRIPTION
* building ‘where.errors_0.1.0.tar.gz’

kevin@MBP-P2MQ:~/projects
$ R CMD check where.errors_0.1.0.tar.gz
* using log directory ‘/Users/kevin/projects/where.errors.Rcheck’
* using R version 4.4.1 (2024-06-14)
* using platform: aarch64-apple-darwin20
* R was compiled by
    Apple clang version 14.0.0 (clang-1400.0.29.202)
    GNU Fortran (GCC) 12.2.0
* running under: macOS Sonoma 14.5
* using session charset: UTF-8
* checking for file ‘where.errors/DESCRIPTION’ ... OK
* checking extension type ... Package
* this is package ‘where.errors’ version ‘0.1.0’
* package encoding: UTF-8
* checking package namespace information ... OK
* checking package dependencies ... OK
* checking if this is a source package ... OK
* checking if there is a namespace ... OK
* checking for executable files ... OK
* checking for hidden files and directories ... OK
* checking for portable file names ... OK
* checking for sufficient/correct file permissions ... OK
* checking whether package ‘where.errors’ can be installed ... OK
* checking installed package size ... OK
* checking package directory ... OK
* checking DESCRIPTION meta-information ... OK
* checking top-level files ... OK
* checking for left-over files ... OK
* checking index information ... OK
* checking package subdirectories ... OK
* checking code files for non-ASCII characters ... OK
* checking R files for syntax errors ... OK
* checking whether the package can be loaded ... OK
* checking whether the package can be loaded with stated dependencies ... OK
* checking whether the package can be unloaded cleanly ... OK
* checking whether the namespace can be loaded with stated dependencies ... OK
* checking whether the namespace can be unloaded cleanly ... OK
* checking loading without being on the library search path ... OK
* checking whether startup messages can be suppressed ... OK
* checking dependencies in R code ... OK
* checking S3 generic/method consistency ... OK
* checking replacement functions ... OK
* checking foreign function calls ... OK
* checking R code for possible problems ... OK
* checking Rd files ... OK
* checking Rd metadata ... OK
* checking Rd cross-references ... OK
* checking for missing documentation entries ... OK
* checking for code/documentation mismatches ... OK
* checking Rd \usage sections ... OK
* checking Rd contents ... OK
* checking for unstated dependencies in examples ... OK
* checking examples ... OK
* checking PDF version of manual ... OK
* DONE

Status: OK

So even R never reports these warnings. Or am I missing something?

[gaborcsardi]

So maybe there is nothing to do here. Or maybe we could show the installation output from 00install.out, still? Although it would be potentially difficult to decide when to do that.