Unable to install `box` with `renv=1.0.0`

[Jakub Nowicki]

Error description

New version of renv (1.0.0) checks if package installed from a binary can be loaded (happens on Linux). box is not able to recognize this situation and throws an error that blocks installation.

Steps to reproduce:

1. Initialize renv in project:

remotes::install_version("renv", version = "1.0.0")
renv::init()

2. Try to install box :

renv::install("box", rebuild = TRUE)
#> # Downloading packages -------------------------------------------------------
#> 
#> - Downloading box from RSPM ...                 OK [file is up to date]
#> 
#> The following package(s) will be installed:
#> 
#> - box [1.1.3]
#> 
#> These packages will be installed into "~/tmp_projects/renv_box/renv/library/R-4.3/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu".
#> 
#> # Installing packages --------------------------------------------------------
#> 
#> - Installing box ...                            FAILED
#> Error: error testing if 'box' can be loaded [error code 1]
#> /opt/R/4.3.1/lib/R/bin/R --vanilla -s -f '/tmp/Rtmp0Oh8zr/renv-install-67f1e5c0ac0fa'
#> ================================================================================
#> 
#> NULL
#> Error: package or namespace load failed for ‘box’:
#>  .onAttach failed in attachNamespace() for 'box', details:
#>   call: library(box)
#>   error: the ‘box’ package is not supposed to be attached!
#> 
#> Please consult the user guide at `vignette("box", package = "box")`.
#> Execution halted

Available workarounds

Setting option --no-test-load:

withr::with_options(
    list(install.opts = "--no-test-load"),
    renv::install("box", rebuild = TRUE)
)
#> # Downloading packages -------------------------------------------------------
#> 
#> - Downloading box from RSPM ...                 OK [file is up to date]
#> 
#> The following package(s) will be installed:
#> 
#> - box [1.1.3]
#> 
#> These packages will be installed into "~/tmp_projects/renv_box/renv/library/R-4.3/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu".
#> 
#> # Installing packages --------------------------------------------------------
#> 
#> - Installing box ...                            OK [installed binary and cached in 0.39s]
#> 
#> Successfully installed 1 package in 0.46 seconds.

R version

R.version
#>                _                           
#> platform       x86_64-pc-linux-gnu         
#> arch           x86_64                      
#> os             linux-gnu                   
#> system         x86_64, linux-gnu           
#> status                                     
#> major          4                           
#> minor          3.1                         
#> year           2023                        
#> month          06                          
#> day            16                          
#> svn rev        84548                       
#> language       R                           
#> version.string R version 4.3.1 (2023-06-16)
#> nickname       Beagle Scouts

‘box’ version

1.1.3

[Jakub Nowicki]

Cross-referencing issue in renv

[Konrad Rudolph]

Thanks for the report here and on ‘renv’. It appears that the issue has already been fixed. Unfortunately it will probably be a while until the fix will be deployed in a release.

Anyway, a simpler workaround is as follows:

renv::install("box", rebuild = FALSE)