crancache

Transparent Caching of Packages from CRAN-like Repositories

Provides wrappers for utils::install.packages(), utils::download.packages() and utils::update.packages() that transparently cache downloaded packages in a local CRAN-like repository.

Installation

Once on CRAN, install this package as usual:

install.packages("crancache")

Usage

library(crancache)

Just load the package and call the install_packages(), update_packages() or download_packages() functions. crancache automatically sets up the cache in the user's operating system dependent cache directory, and uses it whenever it is possible. In particular:

• If the requested version of a package (usually the newest version) is available from the cache, then the cache is used, without downloading it (again).
• If a package is not in the cache, or the version in the cache is outdated, it downloads it and adds it to the cache.

Configuration

The package can be configured via environment variables. The reason for this (as opposed to direct argument to the functions), is that crancache functions are often used via other packages (e.g. remotes), and the user does not call them directly. Environment variables still allow an easy configuration, especially with the withr package. See examples below.

Environment variables:

• CRANCACHE_DISABLE: set this to a non-empty value to disable crancache completely.
• CRANCACHE_REPOS: set this to a comma separated list of repository names (e.g. cran or other, see get_cache_package_dirs(). If empty string or unset, all local repositories are used.
• CRANCACHE_DISABLE_UPDATES: set this to a non-empty value to disable updates to the cache.
• CRANCACHE_DISABLE_BINARY_UPDATES: set this to a non-empty value to disable adding just-built binary packages to the cache. (Downloaded binaries are still added.)

If non of these environment variables are set (i.e. by default) the cache is used and updated and all cache repositories are active.

Example session

For this example, we clean the cache first. In practice you almost never need to clean the cache manually.

crancache_clean()

We set up a new package library, and install some packages in it. After installation, they will be added to the cache.

dir.create(lib <- tempfile())
.libPaths(lib)
system.time(install_packages("tidyverse"))

#> Installing package into ‘/private/var/folders/ws/7rmdm_cn2pd8l1c3lqyycv0c0000gn/T/RtmppR97sc/file16f684a4c4c95’
#> (as ‘lib’ is unspecified)
#> also installing the dependencies ‘colorspace’, ‘mnormt’, ‘RColorBrewer’,
#> ‘dichromat’, ‘munsell’, ‘labeling’, ‘plyr’, ‘psych’, ‘reshape2’,
#> ‘assertthat’, ‘R6’, ‘Rcpp’, ‘lazyeval’, ‘DBI’, ‘BH’, ‘gtable’,
#> ‘scales’, ‘mime’, ‘curl’, ‘openssl’, ‘stringi’, ‘selectr’, ‘broom’,
#> ‘dplyr’, ‘forcats’, ‘ggplot2’, ‘haven’, ‘httr’, ‘hms’, ‘jsonlite’,
#> ‘lubridate’, ‘magrittr’, ‘modelr’, ‘purrr’, ‘readr’, ‘readxl’,
#> ‘stringr’, ‘tibble’, ‘rvest’, ‘tidyr’, ‘xml2’
#> 
#> trying URL 'https://cran.rstudio.com/bin/macosx/mavericks/contrib/3.3/colorspace_1.3-2.tgz'
#> Content type 'application/x-gzip' length 432604 bytes (422 KB)
#> ==================================================
#> downloaded 422 KB
#> 
#> trying URL 'https://cran.rstudio.com/bin/macosx/mavericks/contrib/3.3/mnormt_1.5-5.tgz'
#> Content type 'application/x-gzip' length 89235 bytes (87 KB)
#> ==================================================
#> downloaded 87 KB
...
.rstudio.com/bin/macosx/mavericks/contrib/3.3/tidyverse_1.1.1.tgz'
Content type 'application/x-gzip' length 37228 bytes (36 KB)
==================================================
downloaded 36 KB


The downloaded binary packages are in
	/var/folders/ws/7rmdm_cn2pd8l1c3lqyycv0c0000gn/T//RtmppR97sc/downloaded_packages
Adding ‘assertthat_0.1.tgz’ to the cache
Adding ‘BH_1.62.0-1.tgz’ to the cache
Adding ‘broom_0.4.2.tgz’ to the cache
Adding ‘colorspace_1.3-2.tgz’ to the cache
Adding ‘curl_2.3.tgz’ to the cache
Adding ‘DBI_0.6-1.tgz’ to the cache
Adding ‘dichromat_2.0-0.tgz’ to the cache
Adding ‘dplyr_0.5.0.tgz’ to the cache
Adding ‘forcats_0.2.0.tgz’ to the cache
Adding ‘ggplot2_2.2.1.tgz’ to the cache
Adding ‘gtable_0.2.0.tgz’ to the cache
Adding ‘haven_1.0.0.tgz’ to the cache
Adding ‘hms_0.3.tgz’ to the cache
Adding ‘httr_1.2.1.tgz’ to the cache
Adding ‘jsonlite_1.4.tgz’ to the cache
Adding ‘labeling_0.3.tgz’ to the cache
Adding ‘lazyeval_0.2.0.tgz’ to the cache
Adding ‘lubridate_1.6.0.tgz’ to the cache
Adding ‘magrittr_1.5.tgz’ to the cache
Adding ‘mime_0.5.tgz’ to the cache
Adding ‘mnormt_1.5-5.tgz’ to the cache
Adding ‘modelr_0.1.0.tgz’ to the cache
Adding ‘munsell_0.4.3.tgz’ to the cache
Adding ‘openssl_0.9.6.tgz’ to the cache
Adding ‘plyr_1.8.4.tgz’ to the cache
Adding ‘psych_1.7.3.21.tgz’ to the cache
Adding ‘purrr_0.2.2.tgz’ to the cache
Adding ‘R6_2.2.0.tgz’ to the cache
Adding ‘RColorBrewer_1.1-2.tgz’ to the cache
Adding ‘Rcpp_0.12.10.tgz’ to the cache
Adding ‘readr_1.1.0.tgz’ to the cache
Adding ‘readxl_0.1.1.tgz’ to the cache
Adding ‘reshape2_1.4.2.tgz’ to the cache
Adding ‘rvest_0.3.2.tgz’ to the cache
Adding ‘scales_0.4.1.tgz’ to the cache
Adding ‘selectr_0.3-1.tgz’ to the cache
Adding ‘stringi_1.1.5.tgz’ to the cache
Adding ‘stringr_1.2.0.tgz’ to the cache
Adding ‘tibble_1.3.0.tgz’ to the cache
Adding ‘tidyr_0.6.1.tgz’ to the cache
Adding ‘tidyverse_1.1.1.tgz’ to the cache
Adding ‘xml2_1.1.1.tgz’ to the cache
   user  system elapsed
 16.583   4.156  87.581

At the end of the installation these packages are added to the cache:

crancache_list()

#> $`/Users/gaborcsardi/Library/Caches/R-crancache/bin/macosx/mavericks/contrib/3.3`
#>         Package  Version                           MD5sum
#> 1    assertthat      0.1 1224abccd335fdde83c4ccf351f3b105
#> 2            BH 1.62.0-1 06d1c3d59d8d7c5972bc06b2e6a2d26b
#> 3         broom    0.4.2 46455afbd480dbd73fa04fff79961dd8
#> 4    colorspace    1.3-2 4bc7bdac8b389f38faf62ad0c7defbf9
#> 5          curl      2.3 66da2a69d6499a8375e1982e81f4774b
#> 6           DBI    0.6-1 42524e874e39207139ca11ab64a0d241
#> 7     dichromat    2.0-0 c282dd735bb5ddaac9a2541d68736df2
#> 8         dplyr    0.5.0 744b169c9fe6ffa5909abb4ab3015e3e
#> 9       forcats    0.2.0 30f99cf49d4942ad53e54945f504df86
#> 10      ggplot2    2.2.1 5a3cfa734f17b35e409ca250d23105b8
#> 11       gtable    0.2.0 d43a89a2305a7f2eb9f6601712b1a89f
#> 12        haven    1.0.0 cb3a43af05d237de9ce058cd85607f45
#> 13          hms      0.3 c01daf00b612636dd936e49056b51282
#> 14         httr    1.2.1 25d387091cb912484108b2f493edbd89
#> 15     jsonlite      1.4 352874e225ce3a7183d39794f2a2f21d
#> 16     labeling      0.3 986e3a33b9ec407f2490f27dad0209d7
#> 17     lazyeval    0.2.0 a184f215a601249145f2069652d8d574
#> 18    lubridate    1.6.0 ecc257d783076177fa9971e041f4a7f7
#> 19     magrittr      1.5 a46576a03a0441cdbb1a6ff5c1a74c41
#> 20         mime      0.5 324a147ccb700960dacefdc2169b1db6
#> 21       mnormt    1.5-5 93d6d35c41ac0f28f95f3840d423b806
#> 22       modelr    0.1.0 1be1047896c64e836431c46b3532145b
#> 23      munsell    0.4.3 777dc0e864aa93e6a7e21dbb9ffc1782
#> 24      openssl    0.9.6 646af29dd64e2ed54049fc4b5aabf79c
#> 25         plyr    1.8.4 25fdcd875af2db7b23a98e385c407fd5
#> 26        psych 1.7.3.21 db91e624d5432cfab48d3aad0a8df822
#> 27        purrr    0.2.2 cfc62eaa6a02a02a901eeed65282f639
#> 28           R6    2.2.0 b073f9206d33a6fbd4c622ee097019f8
#> 29 RColorBrewer    1.1-2 15c2b4b421a9aaf82f332d229a044636
#> 30         Rcpp  0.12.10 ea29e3b8361f7992ed1d0d8f13cb09c7
#> 31        readr    1.1.0 f7f0b88c55fe1512338c11246cbbb059
#> 32       readxl    0.1.1 85aa4504d877def89e3175d9acd70dc5
#> 33     reshape2    1.4.2 88ca91299fa40ac37884a75bc8968f05
#> 34        rvest    0.3.2 d2e04a555653ed4cf7219773c2846c63
#> 35       scales    0.4.1 56112f85d50f900c7cfa5362e6c60264
#> 36      selectr    0.3-1 f67f87b3eefaa7f89e823e167192947b
#> 37      stringi    1.1.5 60ac663680eb51f23e9679bd6c672ec0
#> 38      stringr    1.2.0 bc4c3aad2725cdb6027edc8287ee3bda
#> 39       tibble    1.3.0 547682025168a43fd31be2d149b71075
#> 40        tidyr    0.6.1 72e9db39b8580d71f23847bdc2500c39
#> 41    tidyverse    1.1.1 196e404a10ec3709297ccb45013d6e99
#> 42         xml2    1.1.1 3155d4639a0bad5a78afaa286591c1b1

The next time these package files are needed, install_packages() will use the cached versions:

dir.create(lib <- tempfile())
.libPaths(lib)
system.time(install_packages("tidyverse"))

#> Installing package into ‘/private/var/folders/ws/7rmdm_cn2pd8l1c3lqyycv0c0000gn/T/RtmppR97sc/file16f684a4c4c95’
#> (as ‘lib’ is unspecified)
#> also installing the dependencies ‘colorspace’, ‘mnormt’, ‘RColorBrewer’,
#> ‘dichromat’, ‘munsell’, ‘labeling’, ‘plyr’, ‘psych’, ‘reshape2’,
#> ‘assertthat’, ‘R6’, ‘Rcpp’, ‘lazyeval’, ‘DBI’, ‘BH’, ‘gtable’,
#> ‘scales’, ‘mime’, ‘curl’, ‘openssl’, ‘stringi’, ‘selectr’, ‘broom’,
#> ‘dplyr’, ‘forcats’, ‘ggplot2’, ‘haven’, ‘httr’, ‘hms’, ‘jsonlite’,
#> ‘lubridate’, ‘magrittr’, ‘modelr’, ‘purrr’, ‘readr’, ‘readxl’,
#> ‘stringr’, ‘tibble’, ‘rvest’, ‘tidyr’, ‘xml2’
#>
#> The downloaded binary packages are in
#> 	/var/folders/ws/7rmdm_cn2pd8l1c3lqyycv0c0000gn/T//RtmppR97sc/downloaded_packages
#>    user  system elapsed
#>   2.083   2.899   7.818

License

MIT © Gábor Csárdi