s-u / r-actions

GitHub Actions for R

R-actions

This repository contains various GitHub Actions for R that can be used in GitHub workflows.

pkg-check

GitHub action to build, install and check an R package.

Minimal example:

  - uses: s-u/R-actions/pkg-check@v2

By default it expects the package's DESCRIPTION file in the root of the repository and no systems dependencies. It will run R CMD build, automatically install package dependencies from CRAN, run R CMD INSTALL and finally R CMD check.

Inputs

• debian-deps

  Optional list of Debian/Ubuntu packages that need to be installed using apt-get install.

• macos-deps

  Optional list of macOS dependencies from R-macos recipes that need to be installed. Furhter dependencies are determined recursively based on the avaiable binaries in https://mac.r-project.org/bin/ so you only need to specify direct dependencies.

• pkg-path

  The subdirectory containing the DESCRIPTION file. Defaults to . (i.e., root of the repository)

• check-flags

  Additional flags to use for checking (e.g. --as-cran)

• build-script

  Optional script to use instead of R CMD build (e.g., sh mkdist). It is expected to create the package tar ball one level up from the repository directory (so the same as if one called (cd .. && R CMD build <package>).

Examples

A real example with external system dependencies:

  - uses: s-u/R-actions/pkg-check@v2
    with:
      debian-deps: libtiff-dev
      macos-deps: tiff
      check-flags: --as-cran

See the pkg-check-test repository for this example in action (based on the tiff package).

Full check.yaml example to put in .github/actions which tests on Ubuntu, macOS and Windows:

on: [push, pull_request]

name: Package Check

jobs:
  check:
    runs-on: ${{ matrix.os }}

    name: ${{ matrix.os }} check

    strategy:
      fail-fast: false
      matrix:
        os: [ macos-13, macos-14, ubuntu-22.04, windows-2022 ]
        r-version: [ release, devel ]

    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      
      - uses: s-u/R-actions/install@v2
        with:
          r-version: ${{ matrix.r-version }}
          tools: base

      - uses: s-u/R-actions/pkg-check@v2

install

GitHub action to install R on the runner.

Minimal example:

  - uses: s-u/R-actions/install@v2

This installs a well-defined R based on CRAN tar balls, binaries (macOS and Windows) and releases. It is very fast to run.

Inputs

• r-version

  Version of R to install. Only devel and release are guaranteed to work on all platforms.

• tools

  Optional specification of the toolchian to install. Currently this is only used on Windows and passed as the toolchain-type of the toolchain-install actions from ucrt3, so the valid options are none, base and full.

The binaries for the Linux runners are created using the R-build repository based on CRAN nightly tar balls which live in /opt/R/ (with symlinks from /usr/local). The macOS builds come from last-success CRAN builds and Windows build from pre-release CRAN builds.

tinytex

GitHub action to install TinyTex

Minimal example:

  - uses: s-u/R-actions/tinytex@v1

The runners don't have TeX by default so if you want to be able to check R package manuals, you will need to install it in some way and this action is just one of the possible ways.

Inputs

• flavor

  Optional name of the distribution. The possible values are release names from tinytex-releases with TinyTeX as default. TinyTeX-1 is the minimal distribution for R packages.

• version

  Optional TinyTeX version number. Defaults to latest which is the latest daily release. See releases for available version numbers.