Suppress install outputs in R

Question

This is really starting to bug me...I have tried a few methods and none seem to work

I am running an install from a function which generates a lot of unnecessary messages that I would like to suppress, but all of the methods I tried to do this have not worked.

The bit of code I am trying to suppress is : install_github('ROAUth', 'duncantl'), it requires the package devtools to be loaded beforehand.

Anyway, I tried invisible, capture.output and sink, none of which work...or perhaps I am not using them correctly... either way...any ideas?

Answer 1

Another technique would be to patch the devtools functions so that they allow you to pass the stdout argument to system2. Also not very elegant, but perhaps you could convince the package authors to modify devtools in this way. Here are my patched build and install functions:

library(devtools)

# New functions.
my.install<-function (pkg = ".", reload = TRUE, quick = FALSE, args = NULL, ...) 
{
    pkg <- as.package(pkg)
    message("Installing ", pkg$package)
    devtools:::install_deps(pkg)
    built_path <- devtools:::build(pkg, tempdir(),...) # pass along the stdout arg
    on.exit(unlink(built_path))
    opts <- c(paste("--library=", shQuote(.libPaths()[1]), sep = ""), 
        "--with-keep.source")
    if (quick) {
        opts <- c(opts, "--no-docs", "--no-multiarch", "--no-demo")
    }
    opts <- paste(paste(opts, collapse = " "), paste(args, collapse = " "))
    devtools:::R(paste("CMD INSTALL ", shQuote(built_path), " ", opts, sep = ""),...) # pass along the stdout arg
    if (reload) 
        devtools:::reload(pkg)
    invisible(TRUE)
}

my.build<-function (pkg = ".", path = NULL, binary = FALSE, ...) 
{
    pkg <- as.package(pkg)
    if (is.null(path)) {
        path <- dirname(pkg$path)
    }
    if (binary) {
        cmd <- paste("CMD INSTALL ", shQuote(pkg$path), " --build", 
            sep = "")
        ext <- if (.Platform$OS.type == "windows") 
            "zip"
        else "tgz"
    }
    else {
        cmd <- paste("CMD build ", shQuote(pkg$path), " --no-manual --no-resave-data", 
            sep = "")
        ext <- "tar.gz"
    }
    devtools:::R(cmd, path, ...) # pass along the stdout arg
    targz <- paste(pkg$package, "_", pkg$version, ".", ext, sep = "")
    file.path(path, targz)
}

# Patch package.
unlockBinding("install", as.environment("package:devtools"))
unlockBinding("build", as.environment("package:devtools"))
assignInNamespace('install', my.install, ns='devtools', envir=as.environment("package:devtools"));
assignInNamespace('build', my.build, ns='devtools', envir=as.environment("package:devtools"));
lockBinding("install", as.environment("package:devtools"))
lockBinding("build", as.environment("package:devtools"))

# Run with no messages.
suppressMessages(install_github('ROAUth','duncantl',stdout=NULL))

Essentially, you pass along the ... in three places, twice in the install function, and once in the build function.