Error: Function askForPassword not found in RStudio when running auth_setup() outside of RStudio

[vidonne]

Description
I'm trying to authenticate with the rtoot package in VS Code on WSL Ubuntu. After loading the package and running auth_setup(), I get the following error:

Error: Function askForPassword not found in RStudio

This error seems to be due to askForPassword() being specific to RStudio, which isn’t available in my setup.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Open R in VS Code on WSL Ubuntu.
2. Load rtoot package: library(rtoot)
3. Run auth_setup() to attempt authentication.

Expected Behavior
I expect to be prompted for a token or authentication details, even when not in RStudio.

Observed Behavior
The error Error: Function askForPassword not found in RStudio appears, halting the authentication process.

Session Info
To help with debugging, here is my session information:

R version 4.4.1 (2024-06-14)
Platform: x86_64-pc-linux-gnu
Running under: Ubuntu 24.04.1 LTS

Matrix products: default
BLAS:   /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/blas/libblas.so.3.12.0 
LAPACK: /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/lapack/liblapack.so.3.12.0

locale:
 [1] LC_CTYPE=C.UTF-8       LC_NUMERIC=C           LC_TIME=C.UTF-8        LC_COLLATE=C.UTF-8    
 [5] LC_MONETARY=C.UTF-8    LC_MESSAGES=C.UTF-8    LC_PAPER=C.UTF-8       LC_NAME=C             
 [9] LC_ADDRESS=C           LC_TELEPHONE=C         LC_MEASUREMENT=C.UTF-8 LC_IDENTIFICATION=C   

time zone: Europe/Berlin
tzcode source: system (glibc)

attached base packages:
[1] stats     graphics  grDevices utils     datasets  methods   base     

other attached packages:
[1] rtoot_0.3.4

loaded via a namespace (and not attached):
[1] compiler_4.4.1 cli_3.6.3      jsonlite_1.8.9 rlang_1.1.4  

Could there be an alternative way to securely prompt for passwords outside of RStudio, perhaps using the askpass package or allowing direct environment variable input?

Thank you for your help!

[schochastics]

If you are not using RStudio, try the following:

auth_setup(browser = FALSE)

Just checked on my Ubuntu machine with VS Code setup and it should work

[vidonne]

Thanks for your quick reply, unfortunately still getting the same error.

auth_setup(browser = FALSE)

On which instance do you want to authenticate (e.g., "mastodon.social")? fosstodon.org
What type of token do you want? 

1: public
2: user

Selection: user

Navigate to URL PROVIDED BY auth_setup() to obtain an authorization code. Press Enter to the next step.
 
Error: Function askForPassword not found in RStudio
``

[chainsawriot]

rtoot/R/utils.R

Lines 231 to 236 in a0262e0

	passFun <- readline
	if (isTRUE(pass) && isTRUE(check_rstudio) && (requireNamespace("rstudioapi", quietly = TRUE))) {
	if (rstudioapi::isAvailable()) {
	passFun <- rstudioapi::askForPassword
	}
	}

The question now is why this chain of tests (line 232 and line 233) is TRUE on the machine. It's difficult to debug without access to your machine; could you do this:

debug(rtoot:::rtoot_ask)
auth_setup(browser = FALSE)

Step through the running of rtoot_ask and tell us when it fails. Thank you very much!

[vidonne]

Thanks here is what's happening after the URL step:

debugging in: rtoot_ask("", pass = FALSE, check_rstudio = FALSE)
debug: {
    if (!is.null(options("rtoot_cheatcode")$rtoot_cheatcode)) {
        if (options("rtoot_cheatcode")$rtoot_cheatcode == "uuddlrlrba") {
            sayif(verbose, prompt)
            return(options("rtoot_cheat_ask_answer")$rtoot_cheat_ask_answer)
        }
    }
    if (isFALSE(interactive())) {
        sayif(verbose, prompt)
        return(default)
    }
    passFun <- readline
    if (isTRUE(pass) && isTRUE(check_rstudio) && (requireNamespace("rstudioapi", 
        quietly = TRUE))) {
        if (rstudioapi::isAvailable()) {
            passFun <- rstudioapi::askForPassword
        }
    }
    return(passFun(prompt = prompt))
}
Browse[1]>
debug: if (!is.null(options("rtoot_cheatcode")$rtoot_cheatcode)) {
    if (options("rtoot_cheatcode")$rtoot_cheatcode == "uuddlrlrba") {
        sayif(verbose, prompt)
        return(options("rtoot_cheat_ask_answer")$rtoot_cheat_ask_answer)
    }
}

Browse[1]>
debug: if (isFALSE(interactive())) {
    sayif(verbose, prompt)
    return(default)
}

Browse[1]>
debug: passFun <- readline

Browse[1]>
debug: if (isTRUE(pass) && isTRUE(check_rstudio) && (requireNamespace("rstudioapi", 
    quietly = TRUE))) {
    if (rstudioapi::isAvailable()) {
        passFun <- rstudioapi::askForPassword
    }
}

Browse[1]>
debug: return(passFun(prompt = prompt))

Browse[1]>

 
exiting from: rtoot_ask("", pass = FALSE, check_rstudio = FALSE)
debugging in: rtoot_ask(prompt = "enter authorization code: ", pass = TRUE, 
    check_rstudio = TRUE, default = "")
debug: {
    if (!is.null(options("rtoot_cheatcode")$rtoot_cheatcode)) {
        if (options("rtoot_cheatcode")$rtoot_cheatcode == "uuddlrlrba") {
            sayif(verbose, prompt)
            return(options("rtoot_cheat_ask_answer")$rtoot_cheat_ask_answer)
        }
    }
    if (isFALSE(interactive())) {
        sayif(verbose, prompt)
        return(default)
    }
    passFun <- readline
    if (isTRUE(pass) && isTRUE(check_rstudio) && (requireNamespace("rstudioapi", 
        quietly = TRUE))) {
        if (rstudioapi::isAvailable()) {
            passFun <- rstudioapi::askForPassword
        }
    }
    return(passFun(prompt = prompt))
}
Browse[1]>
debug: if (!is.null(options("rtoot_cheatcode")$rtoot_cheatcode)) {
    if (options("rtoot_cheatcode")$rtoot_cheatcode == "uuddlrlrba") {
        sayif(verbose, prompt)
        return(options("rtoot_cheat_ask_answer")$rtoot_cheat_ask_answer)
    }
}

Browse[1]>
debug: if (isFALSE(interactive())) {
    sayif(verbose, prompt)
    return(default)
}

Browse[1]>
debug: passFun <- readline

Browse[1]>
debug: if (isTRUE(pass) && isTRUE(check_rstudio) && (requireNamespace("rstudioapi", 
    quietly = TRUE))) {
    if (rstudioapi::isAvailable()) {
        passFun <- rstudioapi::askForPassword
    }
}

Browse[1]>
debug: if (rstudioapi::isAvailable()) {
    passFun <- rstudioapi::askForPassword
}

Browse[1]>
debug: passFun <- rstudioapi::askForPassword

Browse[1]>
debug: return(passFun(prompt = prompt))

Browse[1]>
Error: Function askForPassword not found in RStudio

Let me know if this helps. Thanks a lot for your support.

[chainsawriot]

@vidonne So,

rstudioapi::isAvailable()

returns TRUE on your VS Code setup ?

[vidonne]

For some mystic reasons yes it does return TRUE

It seems something kind of similar raised in positron rstudio/rstudioapi#302

[chainsawriot]

ok, thank you for the pointer. Now I know the problem. rstudio/rstudioapi#302

Thank you Positron. I will modify this to not using rstudioapi as there is no reliable way now to really check whether the GUI password input is available.

[vidonne]

Maybe this could do the trick:

rstudioapi::hasFun("askForPassword")
[1] FALSE

From one of the answer: rstudio/rstudioapi#302 (comment)

[chainsawriot]

@vidonne Could you give this a try?

remotes::install_github("gesistsa/rtoot@fix158")

[vidonne]

Worked perfectly thanks for the fix!!!