malformed DESCRIPTION error when trying to install git remote by tag

[pj398]

I'm trying to install an R package I host on Codeberg in a new R 4.5 install with {pak}. I thought that the best way to install the only tagged "release" of the package would be to specify the tag label in the pkg_install() call, like so:

pak::pkg_install("git::https://codeberg.org/pjphd/catchup.git@v0.0.1")

However, this errors with

Error: 
! error in pak subprocess
Caused by error in `read.dcf(con)`:
! Line starting 'catchup/DESCRIPTION ...' is malformed!
---

Curiously, if I just install the latest dev version with pak::pkg_install("git::https://codeberg.org/pjphd/catchup.git"), it works just fine and installs the 0.0.1.9000 version.

The only difference between the DESCRIPTION in the tagged "v0.0.1" commit and the latest commit is the ".9000" at the end of the version number in the Version field, so it's unclear to me why it's considered "malformed" in the tagged commit.

I'm sure I'm missing something obvious here, but from the error message and looking at the package sources docs, I really can't see why this is going wrong. Any pointers appreciated.

R version: 4.5.0
pak version: 0.8.0.2
Platform: Fedora 42

[gaborcsardi]

I cannot reproduce this, unfortunately. It is possibly a bug with authentication. Do you have a token for that host in the git credential store?

> pak::pkg_install("git::https://codeberg.org/pjphd/catchup.git@v0.0.1")

→ Will install 1 package.
→ Will download 1 package with unknown size.
+ catchup   0.0.1 [bld][cmp][dl]

ℹ Getting 1 pkg with unknown size
✔ Got catchup 0.0.1 (source) (4.10 kB)
✔ Downloaded 1 package (4.10 kB) in 1.5s
ℹ Packaging catchup 0.0.1
✔ Packaged catchup 0.0.1 (1.4s)
ℹ Building catchup 0.0.1
✔ Built catchup 0.0.1 (439ms)
✔ Installed catchup 0.0.1 (git::https://codeberg.org/pjphd/catchup.git@abd8909) (11ms)
✔ 1 pkg: added 1, dld 1 (NA B) [7.1s]

> getRversion()
[1] ‘4.5.0’

> pak::system_r_platform()
[1] "aarch64-redhat-linux-gnu-fedora-42"

[pj398]

Thanks for the quick response.

I have git-credential-oauth configured as the credential helper for https, rather than using an access token. Could it be related to that? Does pak require that the git credential store is used for package installations via git URLs?

(For what it's worth, I've tried it in a toolbx container running a Fedora 41 image and R-4.4.3, to see if it's related to my recent Fedora/R upgrade; nope, I still get the malformed DESCRIPTION error inside the container.)

[gaborcsardi]

Does pak require that the git credential store is used for package installations via git URLs?

Yes, it does.

[pj398]

Good to know! I tried installing again after replacing git-credential-oauth with git-credential-libsecret in my gitconfig and it installed fine this time with a token provided, so I guess it was indeed the root of the problem. Thanks for helping me figure it out.

[gaborcsardi]

I'll reopen this if you don't mind, because it should have a better error at least, or maybe even a workaround.

[jeroen]

FYI the error comes from desc: r-lib/desc#163