Using `source()` while executing a local job

[valeri]

I am trying to execute as local job the following file, let's call it main.R:

# This is main.R
x <- 1
source("secondary.R")

The main point here is that I am sourcing another file (secondary.R) which relies on the existence of x like this:

# This is secondary.R
y <- x + 1

It seems like R Studio executes secondary.R in a new environment, as it seems to have no knowledge of x and the local job fails with this message:

Error in eval(ei, envir) : object 'x' not found
Calls: sourceWithProgress ... eval -> eval -> source -> withVisible -> eval -> eval
Execution halted

I have 2 questions at this point:

1. Is that a correct representation?

2. If yes, why is that the case and how to avoid this behavior?

Thanks

[raytong]

Hi @valeri. I cannot repeat the problem but you may try to force the source file to evaluate in the environment that source was called. Hope it can help.

x <- 1
source("secondary.R", local = TRUE)

[valeri]

Works - thanks a lot!

[jonathan]

This is a known issue. See here for more info: https://github.com/rstudio/rstudio/issues/4586

[valeri]

Thanks @jonathan - does this mean that it is expected that this behaviour will change in the future?

[jonathan]

We'll change it in the future (as noted in the bug and here it's really too surprising to leave as a default). The current behavior exists in order to make it easy to capture all of the objects created by a script, and there are other ways to do that.