install errors are not errors

[aronatkins]

I was trying to build a documentation-building Docker container using tinytex. I was (obviously) missing lots of pre-requisites, but those problems did not result in a non-zero exit status.

In a Ubuntu trusty (14.04) Docker container that contains git, curl, R (no wget), I ran the following:

R -e "devtools::install_github('yihui/tinytex')"
R -e "tinytex::install_tinytex()"
echo $?

The exit status from the R install_tinytex command was 0, which let my build appear successful.

The full output showing install_tinytex failing:

root@a1012f6f7143:/# R -e "tinytex::install_tinytex()"

R version 3.4.3 (2017-11-30) -- "Kite-Eating Tree"
Copyright (C) 2017 The R Foundation for Statistical Computing
Platform: x86_64-pc-linux-gnu (64-bit)

R is free software and comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
You are welcome to redistribute it under certain conditions.
Type 'license()' or 'licence()' for distribution details.

R is a collaborative project with many contributors.
Type 'contributors()' for more information and
'citation()' on how to cite R or R packages in publications.

Type 'demo()' for some demos, 'help()' for on-line help, or
'help.start()' for an HTML browser interface to help.
Type 'q()' to quit R.

> tinytex::install_tinytex()
trying URL 'https://github.com/yihui/tinytex/raw/master/tools/install-unx.sh'
Content type 'text/plain; charset=utf-8' length 604 bytes
==================================================
downloaded 604 bytes

install-unx.sh: 13: install-unx.sh: wget: not found
mv: cannot stat 'texlive/*': No such file or directory
rm: cannot remove 'texlive': No such file or directory
install-unx.sh: 20: install-unx.sh: wget: not found
install-unx.sh: 20: install-unx.sh: /root/.TinyTeX/bin/*/tlmgr: not found
install-unx.sh: 27: install-unx.sh: /root/.TinyTeX/bin/*/tlmgr: not found
sh: 1: path: not found
sh: 1: conf: not found
TinyTeX installed to /root/.TinyTeX
You may have to restart your system after installing TinyTeX to make sure ~/bin appears in your PATH variable (https://github.com/yihui/tinytex/issues/16).
Warning message:
In tinytex::install_tinytex() :
  TinyTeX was not successfully installed or configured.Your PATH variable is /usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin. See https://yihui.name/tinytex/faq/ for more information.
>
>
root@a1012f6f7143:/# echo $?
0

I have subsequently installed wget and see the installation succeed; this issue is more about the fact that the install was unsuccessful but did not reflect that problem.

[yihui]

Thanks for the report! Now install_tinytex() will stop if wget is not found on Linux.

[aronatkins]

@yihui Is there a reason why you're not checking the exit codes for things as they run? That will catch a wider set of problems.

Here's a primitive Ubuntu instance that doesn't have wget as an example:

$ docker run -it --rm ubuntu:trusty /bin/bash
root@a437b91d9f7c:/# wget
bash: wget: command not found
root@a437b91d9f7c:/# echo $?
127

[yihui]

Just added the check. Thanks!