---
title: "Environment Variables"
subtitle: Customizing environment variable handling
output: rmarkdown::html_vignette
vignette: >
%\VignetteIndexEntry{environment_variables}
%\VignetteEngine{knitr::rmarkdown}
%\VignetteEncoding{UTF-8}
---
```{r, include = FALSE}
knitr::opts_chunk$set(
collapse = TRUE,
comment = "#>"
)
```
Environment variables can be a tremendously helpful alternative to options for
behaviors that one might want to handle ubiquitously across R sessions, that
might be administered, or that might be needed in a command-line context.
They can provide a helpful interface for supporting tasks that might be called
during continuous integration jobs, on a compute cluster, or within a
containerized environment. Since use cases can be hard to predict, `options`
will consider appropriately named environment variables by default.
# Customizing names
Perhaps the default environment names don't suit you. When defining your
options, you can always use your own! However, this level of customization is
only available through the `define_option()` interface.
> By default environment variables look like `R_<PACKAGE>_<OPTION>`
```{r setup}
library(options)
```
```{r custom_envvar_name}
define_option(
"volume",
default = "shout",
desc = "Print output in uppercase ('shout') or lowercase ('whisper')",
option_name = "volume",
envvar_name = "VOL"
)
twist_and <- function(what = opt("volume")) {
lyric <- paste(
"Well, shake it up, baby, now (Shake it up, baby)",
"Twist and shout (Twist and shout)",
sep = "\n"
)
cat(if (what == "shout") toupper(lyric) else tolower(lyric), "\n")
}
```
```{r custom_envvar_ex}
twist_and() # by default, "shout"
```
We can now alter our behavior using the environment variable, `VOL`.
```{r custom_envvar_val, error = TRUE}
Sys.setenv(VOL = "whisper")
twist_and() # picks up our environment variable, "whisper"
```
That's better!
# Setting Naming Rules
Although individually mapping options to environment variables is handy for
one-off options, it can be tedious to do throughout your package, especially if
you want all your variables to follow some consistent naming scheme.
For this we can provide a function which is used to name all future options'
environment variables.
```{r envvar_name_convention}
set_envvar_name_fn(function(package, name) {
gsub("[^A-Z0-9]", "_", toupper(paste0(package, "_", name)))
})
```
Now any future option environment variables will use this convention when they
are defined. Existing options will be unaffected until they are redefined, so
it's often best to make sure this code runs before you start defining options.
```{r, echo = FALSE}
Sys.unsetenv("VOL")
```
```{r redefine_option}
define_options(
"Print output in uppercase ('shout') or lowercase ('whisper')",
volume = "shout"
)
```
You'll notice that our redefined option now uses our custom naming scheme for
its environment variable.
You can always write your own function, or choose from some of the pre-built
ones in `?naming_formats`.
# Parsing Values
So far we've just been using the environment variable's value as-is. Environment
variable values, by default, will try to be parsed into R objects. If that
fails, they'll deliver the raw string value.
This can be a nice default behavior, handling many simple cases as expected
+--------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+
| Environment Variable | Default `options` value |
+======================================+=======================================+
| `whisper` | `[1] "whisper"` (_character_) |
+--------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+
| `"shout"` | `[1] "shout"` (_character_) |
+--------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+
| `12345` | `[1] 12345` (_numeric_) |
+--------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+
| `TRUE` | `[1] TRUE` (_logical_) |
+--------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+
| `NULL` | `NULL` |
+--------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+
| `list(1, 'a')` | ``` |
| | [[1]] |
| | [1] 1 |
| | |
| | [[2]] |
| | [1] "a" |
| | |
| | ``` |
+--------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+
| `list(1, 'a',)` (_error!_) | `[1] "list(1, 'a',)"` (_character_) |
+--------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+
But you'll notice that a typo in our last example completely changed the type of
data that is read in. Depending on the way that you intend to use this variable,
perhaps this default is more error-prone than necessary.
To help with this, there is a whole family of functions that allow you to
customize the way that environment variables are internalized as option values
(`?envvar_fns`). Generally, it's best to keep these specific to the data type of
the option that you intend to use - for example, using `envvar_is_true` to
always coerce the value to a logical scalar.
Just like before, these are used to specify your option's behaviors:
```{r, echo = FALSE}
Sys.unsetenv("VOL")
```
```{r define_envvar_fn}
define_option(
"volume",
default = TRUE,
desc = "Print output in uppercase (TRUE) or lowercase (FALSE)",
envvar_fn = envvar_is_true()
)
```
Of course you can define this function however you like.
# Example
Let's put it all together. We'll customize our environment variable name, and
provide a custom `envvar_fn` which handles how we interpret the raw environment
variable value.
```{r, echo = FALSE}
Sys.unsetenv("VOL")
```
```{r define_envvar_fn_2}
define_option(
"volume",
default = 1,
desc = paste0(
"Print output in uppercase (shout) or lowercase (whisper), or any ",
"number from 1-10 for random uppercasing"
),
envvar_name = "VOL",
envvar_fn = function(raw, ...) {
choice_of_nums <- envvar_choice_of(1:11)
switch(raw, shout = 10, whisper = 1, choice_of_nums(raw))
}
)
```
> Note that the `?envvar_fns` family of functions, like `envvar_choice_of()`
> return _functions_. Although this is a very powerful mechanism of customizing
> behaviors, it can look odd at first glance.
>
> We first generate our function by giving it which values to choose from
> (`envvar_choice_of(1:11)`), then use that function when we have our raw value
> (`choice_of_nums(raw)`).
Now we need to update our `twist_and` function to work with our newly consistent
numeric volumes.
```{r twist_and_eleven}
twist_and_shout <- function(vol = opt("volume")) {
lyric <- c(
"Well, shake it up, baby, now (Shake it up, baby)",
"Twist and shout (Twist and shout)"
)
# handle case where volume knob is broken
if (is.null(vol)) stop("someone turned off the stereo")
# randomly uppercase characters to match volume
lyric <- strsplit(tolower(lyric), "")
lyric <- lapply(lyric, function(line) {
char_sample <- runif(nchar(line)) < (vol - 1) / 9
line[char_sample] <- toupper(line[char_sample])
paste0(line, collapse = "")
})
# in case someone turns it up to 11
if (vol == 11) lyric <- gsub("(\\s*\\(|\\))", "!!!\\1", lyric)
cat(paste(lyric, collapse = "\n"), "\n")
}
```
Let's try it out!
```{r}
Sys.setenv(VOL = "whisper")
twist_and_shout()
```
```{r}
Sys.setenv(VOL = 5)
twist_and_shout()
```
```{r}
Sys.setenv(VOL = "shout")
twist_and_shout()
```
```{r}
Sys.setenv(VOL = 11)
twist_and_shout()
```
```{r, error = TRUE}
Sys.setenv(VOL = "off") # parsed as NULL
twist_and_shout()
```
Looks pretty good! We handle just the inputs we want, without having to worry
about unexpected data slipping into our R code.