Reduce size of installed package

[grantmcdermott]

This is > 5 MB, primarily due to all of the test snapshots in inst/tinytest.

As per R CMD check:

❯ checking installed package size ... NOTE
    installed size is  7.5Mb
    sub-directories of 1Mb or more:
      doc        3.0Mb
      help       1.5Mb
      tinytest   2.9Mb

Can we retain the GitHub testing infrastructure but skip it on CRAN? This is something that I don't have experience with, but I imagine there's a simple workaround.

[grantmcdermott]

@vincentarelbundock writes (original comment)

To skip on CRAN, I set an environment variable on the GitHub workflow and on my computer. Then, at the top of the test script I check if the flag is set with Sys.getenv and call tinytest::exit_file() if not.

That's a cool idea. But we would still need to manually add inst/tinytest/_tinysnapshot to .Rbuildignore before submission, right?

[vincentarelbundock]

Yep, or you could skip all the tests

[mdsumner]

I do a palettize of all image files after generation by the package, it's a bit crufty but it worked (using magick):

https://github.com/hypertidy/ceramic/blob/052b5f3e7608efa472d2ab0f84112f7ea4d5f625/README.Rmd#L230

[grantmcdermott]

I do a palettize of all image files after generation by the package, it's a bit crufty but it worked (using magick)

That's interesting, thanks @mdsumner. I'm not sure whether it will work with the tinysnapshot testing workflow but I'll investigate when I get back to this.

[grantmcdermott]

@vincentarelbundock Do you mind taking a crack at this if you already have some boilerplate ENV VAR logic lying around?

(I'm still not quit sure how skipping the tests will get us around the snapshots if they're already bundled in inst . Probably just missing something obvious.)

[vincentarelbundock]

The process is kind of annoying, but this is what I do:

• Add this to my local .zshrc or equivalent: export R_NOT_CRAN=true
• Add a similar thing to Github workflow
• In tests/tinytest.R, add some logic to skip tests based on the environment variable using Sys.getenv()
• Before releasing to CRAN, add inst/tinytest/_tinysnapshot to .Rbuildignore

The last step is manual and should not be forgotten, which is not ideal.

[vincentarelbundock]

If you're fine with this workflow, I'll prep a PR

[grantmcdermott]

Thanks, please do put in a PR (if it's not too much effort). TBH I'd love a way around the manual final step, but I can't think of one either right now. I'll give it some thought while I'm away from my computer this weekend :-)

[grantmcdermott]

An additional thing that might consider doing here is not building the vignette(s).

[vincentarelbundock]

Honestly, I think I've come to the conclusion that package vignettes are not a good vehicle for tutorials when there are lots of visual elements and complex content. My simple packages have vignettes but those with more scope have a website.

[grantmcdermott]

You just add them to .Rbuildignore, right? Do you have to make any adjustments to your altdoc CI workflow to get the website rendering to work properly?

[vincentarelbundock]

Yes, right. No, altdoc does not consider .Rbuildignore so everything in vignettes/ gets built.

[grantmcdermott]

Great, let's do that then. I'll add this (update: done in #135) and then take a proper look at #128 too once I get time. (Slammed with work deadlines before I head out for an extended spring break...)