R devel - Nov 2018 - Patch idea: an environment variable for setting the user ID

To R-devel,


In `R CMD build`, the ID of the user is automatically inserted into the
DESCRIPTION file, e.g.

Packaged: 2018-11-06 14:01:50 UTC; <MY USER ID>


This is problematic for those of us who work in corporate settings. We must
not divulge our user IDs in the packages we develop and release.

Jim Hester pointed out that these two lines in
`add_build_stamp_to_description_file()`
<https://github.com/wch/r-source/blob/521c90a175d67475b9f1b43d7ae68bc48062d8e6/src/library/tools/R/build.R#L170-L171>
are responsible. Could we consider his suggestion of using an optional
environment variable to overwrite the default behavior?

user <- Sys.getenv("R_BUILD_USERNAME")
if (!nzchar(user)) user <- Sys.info()["user"]
if(user == "unknown") user <- Sys.getenv("LOGNAME")

Will Landau
-- 
wlandau.github.io
linkedin.com/in/wlandau
github.com/wlandau

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>>>>> Will L writes:
> To R-devel,
> In `R CMD build`, the ID of the user is automatically inserted into the
> DESCRIPTION file, e.g.
> Packaged: 2018-11-06 14:01:50 UTC; <MY USER ID>
> This is problematic for those of us who work in corporate settings. We must
> not divulge our user IDs in the packages we develop and release.
> Jim Hester pointed out that these two lines in
> `add_build_stamp_to_description_file()`
>
<https://github.com/wch/r-source/blob/521c90a175d67475b9f1b43d7ae68bc48062d8e6/src/library/tools/R/build.R#L170-L171>
> are responsible. Could we consider his suggestion of using an optional
> environment variable to overwrite the default behavior?
> user <- Sys.getenv("R_BUILD_USERNAME")
> if (!nzchar(user)) user <- Sys.info()["user"]
> if(user == "unknown") user <- Sys.getenv("LOGNAME")
Yep, something along these lines should be possible.
R_BUILD_USER or R_BUILD_LOGNAME may seem more natural though ...

Best
-k


> Will Landau
> -- 
> wlandau.github.io
> linkedin.com/in/wlandau
> github.com/wlandau
> 	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]
> ______________________________________________
> R-devel at r-project.org mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel

Thanks, Kurt.

I think I now have enough time to write a patch. What are the steps? I have
read https://www.r-project.org/bugs.html#how-to-submit-patches but I do not
seem to have permission to create a Bugzilla account at
https://bugs.r-project.org/bugzilla/.

Will


On Mon, Nov 12, 2018 at 2:46 AM Kurt Hornik <Kurt.Hornik at wu.ac.at>
wrote:
> >>>>> Will L writes:
>
> > To R-devel,
> > In `R CMD build`, the ID of the user is automatically inserted into
the
> > DESCRIPTION file, e.g.
>
> > Packaged: 2018-11-06 14:01:50 UTC; <MY USER ID>
>
>
> > This is problematic for those of us who work in corporate settings. We
> must
> > not divulge our user IDs in the packages we develop and release.
>
> > Jim Hester pointed out that these two lines in
> > `add_build_stamp_to_description_file()`
> > <
>
https://github.com/wch/r-source/blob/521c90a175d67475b9f1b43d7ae68bc48062d8e6/src/library/tools/R/build.R#L170-L171
> >
> > are responsible. Could we consider his suggestion of using an optional
> > environment variable to overwrite the default behavior?
>
> > user <- Sys.getenv("R_BUILD_USERNAME")
> > if (!nzchar(user)) user <- Sys.info()["user"]
> > if(user == "unknown") user <-
Sys.getenv("LOGNAME")
>
> Yep, something along these lines should be possible.
> R_BUILD_USER or R_BUILD_LOGNAME may seem more natural though ...
>
> Best
> -k
>
>
>
> > Will Landau
> > --
> > wlandau.github.io
> > linkedin.com/in/wlandau
> > github.com/wlandau
>
> >       [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
>
> > ______________________________________________
> > R-devel at r-project.org mailing list
> > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel
>

-- 
wlandau.github.io
linkedin.com/in/wlandau
github.com/wlandau

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