Help files are not viewable when working with remote connection

[nathaneastwood]

I'm not entirely convinced this is a vscode-R problem, so apologies in advanced if it isn't.

When working on a remote connection (ssh into a Linux env), if I use devtools::load_all("pkg"), and I try to view the development help file, I am faced with the following:

Using development documentation for MyFunction
VSCode WebView has restricted access to local file.
Opening in external browser...
Browsing file:///tmp/RtmpM6oemu/Rtxtf8e36c15798a.html

As well as the following pop up box

My default for getOption("help_type") is "html". If I change this to "text" then everything works fine and I see my help file in the console. I can open the html file (file:///tmp/RtmpM6oemu/Rtxtf8e36c15798a.html) perfectly fine although it of course doesn't render. I am not certain how I give WebView access to development docs?

FWIW:

    "r.rterm.windows": "C://location//to//R.exe",
    "r.rterm.linux": "location/to/radian",
    "r.rterm.option": [""],
    "r.bracketedPaste": true,
    "r.lsp.debug": false,
    "r.lsp.diagnostics": false,
    "r.alwaysUseActiveTerminal": true,
    "r.sessionWatcher": true,

vscode-R 1.6.1 VSCode 1.51.1

[renkun-ken]

Related to #383.

[ManuelHentschel]

If I understood things correctly, the help function from as.environment('devtools_shims') (attached after using load_all) generates an object with class dev_topic, which is printed by print.dev_topic.

In that print function, a temporary html help file is generated and passed to utils::browseURL(), which the browser from init.R cannot show in a webivew, since vscode webviews cannot access arbitrary files.

Instead the filename is passed to the vscode-R extension, which tries to open the file in an external browser but fails, since the file is located on the remote machine.

I guess fixing this problem would be possible by modifying/overwriting any of the functions involved in that chain, but I'm not really sure, what the best approach would be to do this.

[renkun-ken]

@ManuelHentschel You are right, this is largely due to the limitation of WebView security policies and how it is managed to access allowed resources.

[mmyrte]

This apparently also affects package development in dev containers.

I don't know much about this (great!) plugin, but there is an rstudioapi emulation layer, right? It may also be possible to overload the previewRd function, see here

[markschat]

Hi, just wanted to contribute some details (Remote SSH from Win to Linux)

• I develop a package that is already installed
• run devtools::document
• run ?my_func

that returns (as described above):

ℹ Rendering development documentation for "my_function"
VSCode WebView has restricted access to local file.
Opening in external browser...
Browsing file:///tmp/RtmpEhDFQJ/Rtxt5a0a5d3d65d9.html

If I use the recommended F1 keybinding the "old" docs are shown as expected but not the most recent ones generated by devtools::document

{
    "key": "f1",
    "command": "r.helpPanel.openForSelection",
    "when": "editorTextFocus && editorLangId == 'r' || editorTextFocus && editorLangId == 'rmd'"
}

Same thing happens when I use the extension buttons (HELP PAGES > Help Topics ... > my_package > my_func) - the old docs are loaded instead of the most current ones.

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This issue is stale because it has been open for 365 days with no activity.

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This issue was closed because it has been inactive for 14 days since being marked as stale.