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Fetch system requirements for a set of R packages

Source: R/sysreqs-helpers.R
dot-fetch_sysreqs.Rd

Uses remotes::system_requirements() to retrieve Ubuntu/Debian apt package names required by a set of R packages. Returns a deduplicated character vector of bare apt package names suitable for passing to apt-get install. Warns and returns an empty character vector if the lookup fails.

Usage

.fetch_sysreqs(
  packages,
  os_version = "22.04",
  verbose = FALSE,
  chunk_size = 50L
)

Arguments

packages

A character vector of R package names.

os_version

A character string. The Ubuntu version to query against. Defaults to "22.04" when this function is called directly. generate_dockerfile() never relies on that default (C14): it always passes an explicit os_version, derived from the resolved r_version via .resolve_os_version() unless its own os_version argument overrides that derivation, since a single hardcoded value here only matched the Ubuntu release actually backing some R versions and not others.

verbose

Logical. If TRUE, prints progress messages and the per-package report.

chunk_size

A positive integer. The most packages sent to remotes::system_requirements() in one request, a guard against very long request URLs for large lockfiles. Defaults to 50L.

Value

A deduplicated character vector of apt package names.

Details

remotes::system_requirements() validates the Ubuntu release against a fixed internal list (remotes 2.5.0 stops at "22.04"), so asking about a newer release, such as the "24.04" that backs R 4.4.2 and later, is rejected before any lookup happens. When that happens, the error message itself names the releases remotes accepts, so this function reads that list, picks the newest accepted release that is not newer than the one requested, and repeats the lookup against it, with a message saying so. Nothing about the accepted releases is hardcoded here, which means that once remotes learns about a newer release the fallback simply stops being needed. A failure that is not a rejected release, a network error for instance, is never retried.

With verbose = TRUE, the function also reports which package asked for which library, by looking each package up on its own (see .report_sysreqs_sources()). The report never changes the returned value.