Option to generate an renv lockfile to go with a reprex

[wlandau]

When I troubleshoot someone else's bug report, I sometimes need to manually install the users's versions of packages listed in the session info (recent example here). Would it be reasonable for reprex() to help automate this process, possibly by supplying an renv lockfile inline in a <details> tag in the output R Markdown?

This is somewhat related to #284 except the relevent reprexes here are not necessarily powered by renv to start.

[jennybc]

Interesting idea! cc @kevinushey

[kevinushey]

This sounds like it could be useful. Do we want the lockfile to capture all of the packages in the user's library, or only the ones actually used in the reprex?

One downside is that the renv.lock lockfile can grow fairly large when a large number of packages are installed. In that case, it might be better to instead upload the lockfile renv.lock somewhere (maybe as a gist?) and then paste a link into the generated reprex report.

[wlandau]

Do we want the lockfile to capture all of the packages in the user's library, or only the ones actually used in the reprex?

My first thoughts:

1. Packages that end up actually loaded/attached by the time the reprex finishes running.
2. Any additional packages renv detects with static code analysis.
3. Upstream dependencies of (1) and (2).

Are we likely to miss anything that way? If we have (1), do we need (2)?

One downside is that the renv.lock lockfile can grow fairly large when a large number of packages are installed. In that case, it might be better to instead upload the lockfile renv.lock somewhere (maybe as a gist?) and then paste a link into the generated reprex report.

Seems like remote lockfiles would accommodate most use cases, but we use proprietary packages in my work environment, and I need to avoid disclosing internal names and URLs. Related: #214. Could we allow both options?

[jennybc]

I've decided I'm not willing to maintain this sort of feature right now. I'm not convinced it will be used intensely enough to justify the addition. As a compromise / workaround, could those who want this craft some sort of code snippet that a user could drop into their reprex, when you really want a lock file, on a ad hoc basis? Then we could have a mini article about it and at least it would be documented in a place easy to point to.

[kevinushey]

I can add a function to renv that users could call to dump the contents of a lockfile, to be used at the end of a reprex script.

[kevinushey]

@jennybc: could reprex also set the target venue, e.g. as an R option, so that add-ons that want to generate reprex-compatible output can query that and tweak output if necessary? This could be queried via something like:

getOption("reprex.venue")

[kevinushey]

And I've now updated the development version of renv with this -- use

renv::snapshot(reprex = TRUE)

as part of a script that you'd like to include a lockfile for, and the lockfile will be included (as JSON) in the rendered output.

[jennybc]

As of a4e3efe, when any reprex is rendered, you can now do getOption("reprex.current_venue") to find out the venue currently "in force".

Why does the option have this name? We already had an option named reprex.venue, which has a different purpose. It controls the overall default venue for a user, which only affects the reprex_selection() addin. But this is why I had to fiddle with the name a bit.

I have already demo'd this with the dev version of renv! I think this it's a pretty interesting mechanism for synergy between reprex and packages that want to generate specific diagnostics or other artefacts on the user's system. Just to link all this up, here's where @kevinushey did what he describes above: rstudio/renv@25be944. Presumably there will be some refinement now that the reprex.current_venue option exists (you can count on it in reprex >= v1.0.0, which I plan to release soon).

Here's the reprex source:

x <- 1:5
mean(x)

renv::snapshot(reprex = TRUE)

And here's what that produces:

x <- 1:5
mean(x)
#> [1] 3

renv::snapshot(reprex = TRUE)

Lockfile

{
  "R": {
    "Version": "4.0.2",
    "Repositories": [
      {
        "Name": "CRAN",
        "URL": "https://cloud.r-project.org"
      }
    ]
  },
  "Packages": {
    "R6": {
      "Package": "R6",
      "Version": "2.5.0",
      "Source": "Repository",
      "Repository": "CRAN",
      "Hash": "b203113193e70978a696b2809525649d"
    },
    "assertthat": {
      "Package": "assertthat",
      "Version": "0.2.1",
      "Source": "Repository",
      "Repository": "CRAN",
      "Hash": "50c838a310445e954bc13f26f26a6ecf"
    },
    "base64enc": {
      "Package": "base64enc",
      "Version": "0.1-3",
      "Source": "Repository",
      "Repository": "CRAN",
      "Hash": "543776ae6848fde2f48ff3816d0628bc"
    },
    "callr": {
      "Package": "callr",
      "Version": "3.5.1",
      "Source": "Repository",
      "Repository": "CRAN",
      "Hash": "b7d7f1e926dfcd57c74ce93f5c048e80"
    },
    "cli": {
      "Package": "cli",
      "Version": "2.2.0",
      "Source": "CRAN",
      "Repository": "CRAN",
      "RemoteType": "standard",
      "RemotePkgRef": "cli",
      "RemoteRef": "cli",
      "RemoteRepos": "https://cloud.r-project.org",
      "RemotePkgType": "macos",
      "RemoteSha": "2.2.0",
      "Hash": "3ef298932294b775fa0a3eeaa3a645b0"
    },
    "clipr": {
      "Package": "clipr",
      "Version": "0.7.1",
      "Source": "Repository",
      "Repository": "CRAN",
      "Hash": "ebaa97ac99cc2daf04e77eecc7b781d7"
    },
    "crayon": {
      "Package": "crayon",
      "Version": "1.3.4.9000",
      "Source": "GitHub",
      "RemoteType": "github",
      "RemoteHost": "api.github.com",
      "RemoteRepo": "crayon",
      "RemoteUsername": "r-lib",
      "RemotePkgRef": "r-lib/crayon",
      "RemoteRef": "HEAD",
      "RemoteSha": "7679d0f069818ecb6e710e04ec28edf56444055f",
      "Hash": "9c77334d80a7f0393e1d7f2ef4ac9c1a"
    },
    "digest": {
      "Package": "digest",
      "Version": "0.6.27",
      "Source": "Repository",
      "Repository": "CRAN",
      "Hash": "a0cbe758a531d054b537d16dff4d58a1"
    },
    "evaluate": {
      "Package": "evaluate",
      "Version": "0.14",
      "Source": "Repository",
      "Repository": "CRAN",
      "Hash": "ec8ca05cffcc70569eaaad8469d2a3a7"
    },
    "fansi": {
      "Package": "fansi",
      "Version": "0.4.1",
      "Source": "Repository",
      "Repository": "CRAN",
      "Hash": "7fce217eaaf8016e72065e85c73027b5"
    },
    "fs": {
      "Package": "fs",
      "Version": "1.5.0",
      "Source": "Repository",
      "Repository": "CRAN",
      "Hash": "44594a07a42e5f91fac9f93fda6d0109"
    },
    "glue": {
      "Package": "glue",
      "Version": "1.4.2",
      "Source": "Repository",
      "Repository": "CRAN",
      "Hash": "6efd734b14c6471cfe443345f3e35e29"
    },
    "highr": {
      "Package": "highr",
      "Version": "0.8",
      "Source": "Repository",
      "Repository": "CRAN",
      "Hash": "4dc5bb88961e347a0f4d8aad597cbfac"
    },
    "htmltools": {
      "Package": "htmltools",
      "Version": "0.5.0.9003",
      "Source": "GitHub",
      "RemoteType": "github",
      "RemoteHost": "api.github.com",
      "RemoteRepo": "htmltools",
      "RemoteUsername": "rstudio",
      "RemoteRef": "HEAD",
      "RemoteSha": "c2335509e378c3402e805382e384139a17bde0b0",
      "Hash": "2d14b644f570e4ee15742661062a3bea"
    },
    "jsonlite": {
      "Package": "jsonlite",
      "Version": "1.7.2",
      "Source": "Repository",
      "Repository": "CRAN",
      "Hash": "98138e0994d41508c7a6b84a0600cfcb"
    },
    "knitr": {
      "Package": "knitr",
      "Version": "1.30",
      "Source": "Repository",
      "Repository": "CRAN",
      "Hash": "eed7ee0d02eee88d53881cdc92457c62"
    },
    "magrittr": {
      "Package": "magrittr",
      "Version": "2.0.1",
      "Source": "Repository",
      "Repository": "CRAN",
      "Hash": "41287f1ac7d28a92f0a286ed507928d3"
    },
    "markdown": {
      "Package": "markdown",
      "Version": "1.1",
      "Source": "Repository",
      "Repository": "CRAN",
      "Hash": "61e4a10781dd00d7d81dd06ca9b94e95"
    },
    "mime": {
      "Package": "mime",
      "Version": "0.9",
      "Source": "Repository",
      "Repository": "CRAN",
      "Hash": "e87a35ec73b157552814869f45a63aa3"
    },
    "processx": {
      "Package": "processx",
      "Version": "3.4.5",
      "Source": "Repository",
      "Repository": "CRAN",
      "Hash": "22aab6098cb14edd0a5973a8438b569b"
    },
    "ps": {
      "Package": "ps",
      "Version": "1.5.0",
      "Source": "Repository",
      "Repository": "CRAN",
      "Hash": "ebaed51a03411fd5cfc1e12d9079b353"
    },
    "renv": {
      "Package": "renv",
      "Version": "0.12.5-9",
      "Source": "Repository",
      "Repository": "CRAN",
      "Hash": "c19d76cb135b52d3beaf8049bafd1e49"
    },
    "reprex": {
      "Package": "reprex",
      "Version": "0.3.0.9001",
      "Source": "Repository",
      "Repository": "CRAN",
      "Hash": "1e2e7c9356fe22a71de8c38d6e15dffe"
    },
    "rlang": {
      "Package": "rlang",
      "Version": "0.4.10",
      "Source": "GitHub",
      "RemoteType": "github",
      "RemoteHost": "api.github.com",
      "RemoteRepo": "rlang",
      "RemoteUsername": "r-lib",
      "RemoteRef": "HEAD",
      "RemoteSha": "f0c9be5c5806b4e4b120b7516f286fef3c66bda5",
      "Hash": "fe335f772af2d548d7afebbf6609c44d"
    },
    "rmarkdown": {
      "Package": "rmarkdown",
      "Version": "2.6",
      "Source": "CRAN",
      "Repository": "CRAN",
      "RemoteType": "standard",
      "RemotePkgRef": "rmarkdown",
      "RemoteRef": "rmarkdown",
      "RemoteRepos": "https://cloud.r-project.org",
      "RemotePkgType": "macos",
      "RemoteSha": "2.6",
      "Hash": "bc4bac38960b446c183957bfd563e763"
    },
    "stringi": {
      "Package": "stringi",
      "Version": "1.5.3",
      "Source": "Repository",
      "Repository": "CRAN",
      "Hash": "a063ebea753c92910a4cca7b18bc1f05"
    },
    "stringr": {
      "Package": "stringr",
      "Version": "1.4.0",
      "Source": "Repository",
      "Repository": "CRAN",
      "Hash": "0759e6b6c0957edb1311028a49a35e76"
    },
    "tinytex": {
      "Package": "tinytex",
      "Version": "0.28",
      "Source": "CRAN",
      "Repository": "CRAN",
      "RemoteType": "standard",
      "RemotePkgRef": "tinytex",
      "RemoteRef": "tinytex",
      "RemoteRepos": "https://cloud.r-project.org",
      "RemotePkgType": "macos",
      "RemoteSha": "0.28",
      "Hash": "ff73961a77fba606fbf944dc3468e5b9"
    },
    "withr": {
      "Package": "withr",
      "Version": "2.3.0",
      "Source": "Repository",
      "Repository": "CRAN",
      "Hash": "7307d79f58d1885b38c4f4f1a8cb19dd"
    },
    "xfun": {
      "Package": "xfun",
      "Version": "0.20",
      "Source": "CRAN",
      "Repository": "CRAN",
      "RemoteType": "standard",
      "RemotePkgRef": "xfun",
      "RemoteRef": "xfun",
      "RemoteRepos": "https://cloud.r-project.org",
      "RemotePkgType": "macos",
      "RemoteSha": "0.20",
      "Hash": "d7222684dc02327871e3b1da0aba7089"
    },
    "yaml": {
      "Package": "yaml",
      "Version": "2.2.1",
      "Source": "Repository",
      "Repository": "CRAN",
      "Hash": "2826c5d9efb0a88f657c7a679c7106db"
    }
  }
}

^{Lockfile generated by renv 0.12.5-9.}

^{Created on 2021-01-15 by the reprex package (v0.3.0.9001)}