NEWS in package ‘R.cache’

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Changes in version 0.15.0 (2021-04-27)

SIGNIFICANT CHANGES

• The location of the root cache folder as introduced in R.cache 0.14.0 has been updated to match that of tools::R_user_dir(), which was introduced in R 4.0.0. On Linux, this was already the case in R.cache 0.14.0, whereas on macOS and MS Windows, the folder locations have changed slightly. If an old cache folder location is detected, then the user will be queried what action to take, i.e. abort, ignore the old folder, remove the old folder, or move the old folder to the new location. In non-interactive mode, the default action is always to ignore.
• The package will no longer ask for permission to create the cache folder as long as the cache folder is compatible with tools::R_user_dir().

Changes in version 0.14.0 (2019-12-05)

SIGNIFICANT CHANGES

• Now R.cache uses a default cache path that adheres to the standard cache location on the current operating system, whereas in previous versions it defaulted to ~/.Rcache. On Unix, the 'XDG Base Directory Specification' is followed, which means that the R.cache folder will typically be ~/.cache/R/R.cache/. On macOS, it will be ~/Library/Caches/R/R.cache/. On modern versions of Microsoft Windows, environment variables such as 'LOCALAPPDATA' will be used, which typically resolves to '%USERPROFILE%/AppData/Local, e.g. 'C:/Users/alice/AppData/Local'. If R.cache fails to find a proper OS-specific cache folder, it will fall back to using ~/.Rcache as previously done. Importantly, if ~/.Rcache already exists, then that will be used by default. This is done in order to not lose previously cached files. Users with an existing folder who wish to move to the new standard need to move or remove the ~/.Rcache folder manually.

NEW FEATURES

• Add generateCache() to generate cache pathnames from a key without creating the cache file. This function was previously not exported.
• Option 'R.cache.rootPath' now defaults to environment variable 'R_CACHE_ROOTPATH' if it is set.
• evalWithMemoization() gained argument 'drop' to specify which attributes to drop from the expression object. The default is to now drop any source-reference attributes.

BUG FIXES

• evalWithMemoization(expr) failed to memoize in knitr documents because although the same 'expr' was specified they differed internally due to source-reference attributes.
• evalWithMemoization() used partial dollar name matching in one place.

DEPRECATED & DEFUNCT

• Previously deprecated options 'R.cache::rootPath', 'R.cache::touchOnLoad', and 'R.cache::compress' are now defunct. Likewise, environment variable 'R_CACHE_PATH' and argument onError="print" for loadCache() are now defunct.

SOFTWARE QUALITY

• Now a temporary cache root path is always set when running 'R CMD check', unless one is explicitly set via an option or an environment variable.

Changes in version 0.13.0 (2018-01-03)

SIGNIFICANT CHANGES

• Package now formally requires R (>= 2.14.0) released October 2011.

NEW FEATURES

• Now package gives a more informative error message in the rare cases it fails to create the cache root directory or fails to save a cache file.
• Updated loadCache() to recognize new file-format version 3 coming to R.
• Added options 'R.cache.enabled', which defaults to TRUE, for controlling whether loadCache() and saveCache() should read/write from cache or not. This provides an easy mechanism for temporarily disabling R.cache.
• Harmonized R.cache options to all have names prefixed with 'R.cache.'.
• clearCache() now prompts the user via readline(), which is always visible, i.e. it can neither be captured nor sinked.

SOFTWARE QUALITY

• TESTS: Increased test coverage.

DEPRECATED & DEFUNCT

• Using onError = "print" for loadCache() is deprecated and replaced by new onError = "message".
• Deprecated R.cache options 'R.cache::rootPath', 'R.cache::touchOnLoad', and 'R.cache::compress'. Use 'R.cache.rootPath', 'R.cache.touchOnLoad', and 'R.cache.compress' instead.

Changes in version 0.12.0 (2015-11-12)

NEW FEATURES

• Now all prompt and verbose messages are send to the standard error (instead of the standard output).
• SPEEDUP: Now memoizedCall() generates cache pathname only once.

SOFTWARE QUALITY

• TESTS: Increased test coverage from 64% to 86%.

DEPRECATED & DEFUNCT

• CLEANUP: Dropped argument 'verbose' from memoizedCall().

Changes in version 0.11.1 (2014-09-10)

DOCUMENTATION

• Clarified in help that function calls that returns ("has value") NULL will not be cached.

SOFTWARE QUALITY

• TESTS: Added package system tests for memoizeCall() and addMemoization().

BUG FIXES

• addMemoization() will no longer memoize an already memoized function.

Changes in version 0.11.0 (2014-09-05)

SIGNIFICANT CHANGES

• Now package imports rather than suggests the 'digest' package. This simplifies installation/usage of the package.

Changes in version 0.10.0 (2014-06-10)

SOFTWARE QUALITY

• Bumped package dependencies.

Changes in version 0.9.5 (2014-05-01)

NEW FEATURES

• The textual prompt used to ask new R.cache users for approval on creating a persistent cache directory is now using the standard error (stderr) rather than the standard output (stdout). This lowers the risk for issues with report generators.

Changes in version 0.9.4 (2014-04-26)

SOFTWARE QUALITY

• Minimizing the use of '::'.

Changes in version 0.9.3 (2014-01-30)

SOFTWARE QUALITY

• Bumped package dependencies.

Changes in version 0.9.2 (2014-01-13)

• All call to internal generateCache() with key = NULL would give a hard-to-understand error message. Now it's more informative. SOFTWARE QUALITY:
• Bumped package dependencies.

Changes in version 0.9.1 (2013-12-21)

• Added arguments 'path' and 'rootPath' to getCachePath().
• Added argument 'pathname' to saveCache().

Changes in version 0.9.0 (2013-10-17)

BUG FIXES

• If the package was only loaded but not attached, the cache root path would default to ~/.Rcache/, which in turn could cause that path to be create without asking the user. For instance, R.cache::loadCache(list()) would do. Thanks to Kurt Hornik at Vienna University of Economics and Business for reporting on this.

Changes in version 0.8.4 (2013-10-14)

BUG FIXES

• Adjusted package dependencies and NAMESPACE to work with the package versions available on CRAN.

SOFTWARE QUALITY

• Now DESCRIPTION's 'Authors' field matches 'Authors@R'.

Changes in version 0.8.3 (2013-10-03)

SOFTWARE QUALITY

• Bumped package dependencies.

Changes in version 0.8.2 (2013-09-28)

NEW FEATURES

• Now the 'R.cache' Package object is also available when the package is only loaded (but not attached).

Changes in version 0.8.1 (2013-09-15)

SOFTWARE QUALITY

• Now only importing a minimal set of functions needed from the 'R.oo' and the 'R.utils' packages.
• Bumped package dependencies.

Changes in version 0.8.0 (2013-08-21)

SIGNIFICANT CHANGES

• Now R.utils is no longer attached ("loaded") - only imported.

SOFTWARE QUALITY

• TESTS: Added system tests.

Changes in version 0.7.4 (2013-08-20)

SOFTWARE QUALITY

• Now explicitly importing one function from 'utils' in NAMESPACE.

Changes in version 0.7.3 (2013-08-18)

SOFTWARE QUALITY

• Now clearCache() is exported (re-exported from R.oo).

Changes in version 0.7.2 (2013-08-03)

SOFTWARE QUALITY

• Bumped package dependencies.

BUG FIXES

• R.cache:::.assertDigest() called from within another package would give an error that packageVersion() of 'utils' was not found.

Changes in version 0.7.1 (2013-07-11)

SOFTWARE QUALITY

• Updated the title and the description of the package.

Changes in version 0.7.0 (2013-07-03)

NEW FEATURES

• Now getChecksum() passes '...' to digest(), e.g. argument 'algo'.

SOFTWARE QUALITY

• Bumped package dependencies.

Changes in version 0.6.10 (2013-05-25)

SOFTWARE QUALITY

• Minor speedup of loadCache() - replaced an rm() call with NULL assignment.

Changes in version 0.6.9 (2013-05-20)

SOFTWARE QUALITY

• CRAN POLICY: Now all Rd \usage{} lines are at most 90 characters long.
• Bumped package dependencies.

Changes in version 0.6.8 (2012-12-19)

NEW FEATURES

• Utilizing new startupMessage() of R.oo.

Changes in version 0.6.7 (2012-11-28)

NEW FEATURES

• Added support for clearCache(..., recursive = TRUE).

Changes in version 0.6.6 (2012-11-27)

BUG FIXES

• clearCache() would give error "object 'dirs' not found".

Changes in version 0.6.5 (2012-11-18)

SIGNIFICANT CHANGES

• Package now only imports R.methodsS3 and R.oo, no long depends (attaches) them. It still needs to load R.utils.
• Now package exports a smaller set of the methods.

SOFTWARE QUALITY

• ROBUSTNESS: Now package declares S3 methods in the namespace.
• Added internal .assertDigest(), which originates from aroma.core.

Changes in version 0.6.4 (2012-10-16)

SIGNIFICANT CHANGES

• Package now imports R.methodsS3 and R.oo.

BUG FIXES

• ROBUSTNESS: No longer passing '...' to NextMethod(), cf. R-devel thread 'Do *not* pass '...' to NextMethod() - it'll do it for you; missing documentation, a bug or just me?' on Oct 16, 2012.

Changes in version 0.6.3 (2012-09-12)

SIGNIFICANT CHANGES

• Renamed the installed .Rcache/ directory to _Rcache/ to avoid R CMD check NOTEs.

SOFTWARE QUALITY

• CRAN POLICY: Removed one last call to .Internal() for loading saved data. This could be done in a backward-compatible way using readRDS().

Changes in version 0.6.2 (2012-03-20)

SOFTWARE QUALITY

• CRAN POLICY: Dropped an explicit call to an .Internal() function.

Changes in version 0.6.1 (2012-01-22)

NEW FEATURES

• Updated the README that is copied to the .Rcache directory.

Changes in version 0.6.0 (2011-12-30)

SIGNIFICANT CHANGES

• As before, the cache root path defaults to ~/.Rcache/. However, if it does not exists, then it is created when the package is loaded, but only after approval by the user (via a textual prompt). If not approved, or it is not possible to prompt the user (e.g. in a non-interactive session), then a session-specific temporary directory is used.

Changes in version 0.5.3 (2011-12-29)

NEW FEATURES

• Now getCachePath() and setCacheRootPath() add a README.txt file to the root path, iff missing. It explains why the directory structure exists, what created it, and that it is safe to delete.

Changes in version 0.5.2 (2011-10-05)

BUG FIXES

• For R v2.13.0 only: Applying the same fix that was done for R v2.12.2 and before in R.cache v0.5.1.

Changes in version 0.5.1 (2011-08-31)

BUG FIXES

• For R v2.12.2 and before: After adding support for compressed files in R.cache v0.5.0, we would get the 'Error in seek.connection(con, origin = "current", where = -5) : whence = "end" is not implemented for gzfile connections' in readCacheHeader() iff running R v2.12.2 or before. Thanks to Uwe Ligges (R core) for reporting on this.

Changes in version 0.5.0 (2011-08-16)

NEW FEATURES

• Added support for saving and loading compressed cache files.
• Now package uses packageStartupMessage() instead of cat().

SOFTWARE QUALITY

• ROBUSTNESS: Now findCache() asserts that any identified cache file is really a file.

Changes in version 0.4.3 (2011-07-21)

DOCUMENTATION

• Clarified how argument 'dirs' (in methods using it) specifies the subdirectory of the cache root directory.

Changes in version 0.4.2 (2011-05-19)

NEW FEATURES

• Now argument 'prompt' for clearCache() defaults to TRUE iff interactive() is TRUE, otherwise FALSE.

DOCUMENTATION

• Added a help page to clearCache().

Changes in version 0.4.1 (2011-04-02)

NEW FEATURES

• Now generateCache() utilizes a generic function getChecksum() to obtain the checksum. This makes it possible to customize how checksums are calculated for different classes of objects.
• Added a default getChecksum() which utilizes digest::digest().
• Added getChecksum() for the Object, which first clears the cache of the object and the calls the default ditto.
• Added trial version of evalWithMemoization().

BUG FIXES

• clearCache() would also report on subdirectories.

Changes in version 0.4.0 (2011-02-14)

NEW FEATURES

• Added trial versions of memoizedCall() and addMemoization().

Changes in version 0.3.0 (2010-03-13)

SOFTWARE QUALITY

• Added a NAMESPACE.

Changes in version 0.2.0 (2009-10-16)

BUG FIXES

• In R v2.10.0 and newer, we would get an error reporting that internal function loadFromConn() does not exists.

Changes in version 0.1.9 (2009-09-11)

NEW FEATURES

• Added argument 'onError' to loadCache(), to specify the action when an error occurs. The default used to be to print the error message (onError = "print"), but now it generates a warning ("warning"). The other alternatives are do silently ignore it, or to throw the error ("error"). Except for onError = "error", loadCache() always returns NULL if an error occurs.

Changes in version 0.1.8 (2009-08-11)

NEW FEATURES

• Now readCacheHeader() reports the "pathname" in error/warnings messages, if argument 'file' refers to a file and the "description" if it refers to a connection.

SOFTWARE QUALITY

• ROBUSTNESS: Added sanity check to readCacheHeader() testing that the read header identifier is non-empty. This results in a clearer error message that before.
• Renamed the HISTORY file to NEWS.

Changes in version 0.1.7 (2008-02-27)

NEW FEATURES

• Added option to updated the "last-modified" timestamp of cache files whenever they are loaded via loadCache(). This will help identified what cache files have not been used for a long time. To turn this on, use options("R.cache::touchOnLoad" = TRUE).
• Now error messages specifies the pathname, if available.

BUG FIXES

• The throw() for invalid identifiers was trying to put the connection object in the output and not the identifier.

Changes in version 0.1.6 (2007-07-02)

NEW FEATURES

• Now environments, in addition to lists, may be used as keys for generating cache names.

SOFTWARE QUALITY

• Package passes R CMD check on R v2.6.0 devel. Minor mods.

Changes in version 0.1.5 (2007-03-11)

NEW FEATURES

• Added getCacheRootPath() to the help index page.

SOFTWARE QUALITY

• Package passes R CMD check on R v2.5.0.

Changes in version 0.1.4 (2007-03-07)

NEW FEATURES

• Added getCacheRootPath() and setCacheRootPath() to specify where the root of the file path is located.

Changes in version 0.1.3 (2007-01-24)

NEW FEATURES

• Now saveCache() and loadCache() takes optional argument 'dirs' for caching data to subdirectories of the root cache directory.
• Added setCacheRootPath() to set the root cache directory.

Changes in version 0.1.2 (2006-05-25)

NEW FEATURES

• Added argument 'pathname' to loadCache() in order to load "unknown" cache files for which the key is unknown.

BUG FIXES

• Work around for not saving "promises" (non-evaluated arguments) in base::save(), which otherwise includes all of the surrounding environment if 'sources' is not evaluated/missing. For more details see code and my email to r-devel on 2006-05-25. Thanks to Brian Ripley for explaining what was going on.

Changes in version 0.1.1 (2006-05-22)

SIGNIFICANT CHANGES

• Added header comment for file format > v0.1.

NEW FEATURES

• Added readCacheHeader().
• Added detection of file format version.

Changes in version 0.1.0 (2005-12-16)

NEW FEATURES

• Using a special binary file format now. It allows you to check if cache is up-to-date to a source file. If not, the rest of the cache binary file is not loaded.
• Added loadCache() and saveCache() methods.
• Created.