Is there any special functionality in R package "exec" or "tools" directories?

Question

I'm trying to develop an R package that will include some previously compiled executable programs and their supporting libraries. (I know this is bad form, but it is for internal use).

My question: Does the special exec and tools directories have any special functionality within R?

The documentation seems to be sparse. Here is what I've figured out so far:

From here

• files contained in exec are marked as executable on install
• subdirectories in exec are ignored
• exec is rarely used (my survey of CRAN says tools is just as rarely used)
• tools is around for configuration purposes?

Do these directories offer any that I couldn't get from creating an inst/programs directory?

Answer 1

[R-exts] has this to say:

Subdirectory exec could contain additional executable scripts the package needs, typically scripts for interpreters such as the shell, Perl, or Tcl. This mechanism is currently used only by a very few packages. NB: only files (and not directories) under exec are installed (and those with names starting with a dot are ignored), and they are all marked as executable (mode 755, moderated by ‘umask’) on POSIX platforms. Note too that this is not suitable for executable programs since some platforms (including Windows) support multiple architectures using the same installed package directory.

It's quite possible the last note won't apply to you if it's only for internal use.

Nevertheless, I'd suggest avoiding abusing any existing convention that might not apply precisely to your situation, and instead use inst/tools or inst/bin.