`devtools::dev_sitrep()` failing on Windows system

[jacobspangler-agendia]

When I use the devtools::dev_sitrep() function, I'm getting a 400 bad request response:

Error in utils::download.file(url, tmp, quiet = TRUE) : cannot open URL 'https://www.rstudio.org/links/check_for_update?version=2022.2.2.485&os=windows&format=kvp' In addition: Warning message: In utils::download.file(url, tmp, quiet = TRUE) : cannot open URL 'https://www.rstudio.org/links/check_for_update?version=2022.2.2.485&os=windows&format=kvp': HTTP status was '400 Bad Request'

This appears similar to issue 2397

[jennybc]

@jgutman does the above surprise you?

[jgutman]

Off the top of my head I don't know why this would be, but I'll take a look soon!

[jennybc]

I definitely get the same 400:

httr::GET("https://www.rstudio.org/links/check_for_update?version=2022.2.2.485&os=windows&format=kvp")
#> Response [https://www.rstudio.org/links/check_for_update?version=2022.2.2.485&os=windows&format=kvp]
#>   Date: 2022-06-02 22:41
#>   Status: 400
#>   Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8
#> <EMPTY BODY>

so the question really is ... is devtools making a bad URL or does some URL that should work, not work?

[jennybc]

I wonder if this particular build (2022.2.2.485) was removed or de-listed as part of the response to this:

PSA: If you're using @RStudio with R 4.2 on Windows, please update to the just-released 2022.02.3. There's an issue with R 4.2 and older @RStudio releases that can empty your R scripts

https://twitter.com/rstudiotips/status/1532775784632356865

[jgutman]

No, we literally just released that patch, so that isn't the reason. I will be evaluating this, its just been busy this week. I've confirmed it gives the correct response in RStudio Desktop on Windows with 2022.2.2.485, so I'll compare and see if we are pinging the same URL with the same params -- will get back to this next week!

[jgutman]

Okay, so I have identified the issue, and it does appear that the correct URL is not being formed. IIRC, the PR we had previously discussed, the intended approach was to call rstudioapi::versionInfo()$long_version and use the long version in constructing the URL. Because some older versions of RStudio do not have a long version, if there was no long version, fall back to the rstudioapi::versionInfo()$version. For the identified version, the long version is 2022.02.2+485, and we should be using the escaped long version, rather than the (short) version, which is 2022.2.2.485 and does not exist on the page. I'm not sure offhand why it is using the version rather than the long version, but I believe that is the source of the error

[jgutman]

@jacobspangler-agendia do you get the same error with the latest development version of devtools from Github? It seems like this fails using the version of devtools on CRAN, but passes if I install from Github.

[jennybc]

Ah, yes. I haven't released devtools to CRAN since implementing the fix for this function!

https://github.com/r-lib/devtools/blob/main/NEWS.md#devtools-development-version