Installation error: unsafe absolute working directory name

[johnyaku]

I encounter the following installation error when trying to install fs from source on Linux via renv with an external cache directory set by RENV_PATHS_CACHE.

configure: error: unsafe absolute working directory name
make: *** [Makevars:37: libuv-1.44.2/Makefile] Error 1

Deleting this check allowed the installation to complete successfully.

This may be more of a renv bug than an fs bug, but I wonder about the cost-benefit of this check when installation succeeds without it.

Perhaps this could be downgraded from an error to a warning?

[gaborcsardi]

That file is part of libuv, and we would prefer not to change it if we don't need to. Maybe you could adapt your path. It does not seem like a good idea to include those characters in a directory name.

[johnyaku]

How would I adapt my path?
I'm using renv::install() within a project directory but with an external cache set by RENV_PATHS_CACHE

[gaborcsardi]

Is the problematic character coming from RENV_PATHS_CACHE?

[johnyaku]

No idea. I bring it up because it is the only absolute path in the whole project.
I'm not sure what other paths I could adapt.

Sounds like I should bring this up with the libuv devs.

[gaborcsardi]

What do you set RENV_PATHS_CACHE to? What's the problematic full path?

[johnyaku]

I tracked the problem down to ~/.Renviron where I had:

TMPDIR=/foo/bar/$USER

Changing this to the following fixed the problem:

TMPDIR=/foo/bar/${USER}

R was creating a directory called /foo/bar/'$USER'/ instead of resolving the USER environment variable.

In other words, it wasn't the absolute path to RENV_PATHS_CACHE that was the problem, but rather the unsafe $ in /foo/bar/'$USER'.