Chat fails when dependency libraries are installed read only

[natashanath]

Ollama chat using elmer fails when dependency libraries are installed read only

library(S7)
library(httr2)
library(coro)
library(shinychat)
library(elmer)

chat <- chat_ollama(
  model = 'zephyr7b',
  system_prompt = 'You are a friendly but terse coding assistant. You are an expert in R, Python, SQL.',
  echo = TRUE
)
elmer::live_browser(chat)

# UI error displayed:
An error occurred: inherits(pool, "curl_multi") is not TRUE
# Error in debugging:
Warning in file.copy(from, to, ...) :
  problem copying /path/to/R/library/bslib/lib/bs3/assets/fonts/bootstrap/glyphicons-halflings-regular.eot to /path/to/tmp/bslib-precompiled-5/fonts/bootstrap/glyphicons-halflings-regular.eot: Permission denied
Warning in file.copy(from, to, ...) :
  problem copying /path/to/R/library/bslib/lib/bs3/assets/fonts/bootstrap/glyphicons-halflings-regular.svg to /path/to/tmp/bslib-precompiled-5/fonts/bootstrap/glyphicons-halflings-regular.svg: Permission denied
Warning in file.copy(from, to, ...) :
  problem copying /path/to/R/librarybslib/lib/bs3/assets/fonts/bootstrap/glyphicons-halflings-regular.ttf to /path/to/tmp/bslib-precompiled-5/fonts/bootstrap/glyphicons-halflings-regular.ttf: Permission denied
Warning in file.copy(from, to, ...) :
  problem copying /path/to/R/library/bslib/lib/bs3/assets/fonts/bootstrap/glyphicons-halflings-regular.woff to /path/to/tmp/bslib-precompiled-5/fonts/bootstrap/glyphicons-halflings-regular.woff: Permission denied
Warning in file.copy(from, to, ...) :
  problem copying /path/to/R/library/bslib/lib/bs3/assets/fonts/bootstrap/glyphicons-halflings-regular.woff2 to /path/to/tmp/bslib-precompiled-5/fonts/bootstrap/glyphicons-halflings-regular.woff2: Permission denied

In enterprise settings it is not uncommon to have a centralized library of packages where everything is installed read-only and maintained by designated users/teams. Another use case which is quickly gaining popularity is using Nix package manager for maintaining data science environments. Nix installs everything read-only.

[hadley]

The error looks like it's associated with copying to a temporary directory?

[natashanath]

The source files have read-only permissions and result in an error when copied to the temporary directory.

One solution would be to add copy.mode = FALSE to the file.copy calls, so that the file mode attributes are not preserved.
Is there a way to identify where in the source code this file copy is happening and be modified?

[hadley]

Given the paths involved, I suspect it's from the bslib package.

[natashanath]

Yes, that is correct. I believe this is where the file copy is happening in bslib that is also copying over the file mode attributes:
https://github.com/rstudio/bslib/blob/b54bfb5de82f76bc044c4c661995af3a63e7ab29/R/bs-dependencies.R#L88

[hadley]

Can you file an issue at bslib please?

[hadley]

Closing this issue, since it seems like the root cause is bslib.