clarify behavior when R_COMPILE_AND_INSTALL_PACKAGES: never (#87)

* prefer older binaries over newer sources Binaries are sometimes available later than newer sources on repositories. Installing from source can be slower and fail because of missing system dependencies which can lead to frustrating intermittent failures. * keep default behavior, document forcing binaries * Re-build README.Rmd * add links and fix pkg link * Re-build README.Rmd * clarify what happens on missing binaries * Re-build README.Rmd Co-authored-by: runner <runner@Mac-1693.local> Co-authored-by: runner <runner@Mac-1320.local>
r-lib · Apr 20, 2020 · 880ee84 · 880ee84
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diff --git a/examples/README.Rmd b/examples/README.Rmd
@@ -180,6 +180,10 @@ jobs:
    # missing yaml here
 ```
 
+`R_COMPILE_AND_INSTALL_PACKAGES: never` does what it says on the tin: it will never install from source.
+If there is *no* binary for the package, or none meeting the minimum version required in your `DESCRIPTION`, the installation of R package dependencies will be incomplete.
+This can lead to confusing errors, because while dependency installation will *not* fail in this situation, later steps in your workflow may fail because of the missing package(s).
+
 You can learn more about packages in source and binary form [here](https://r-pkgs.org/package-structure-state.html#binary-package) and [here](https://www.jumpingrivers.com/blog/faster-r-package-installation-rstudio/).
 
 

diff --git a/examples/README.md b/examples/README.md
@@ -710,6 +710,14 @@ jobs:
    # missing yaml here
 ```
 
+`R_COMPILE_AND_INSTALL_PACKAGES: never` does what it says on the tin: it
+will never install from source. If there is *no* binary for the package,
+or none meeting the minimum version required in your `DESCRIPTION`, the
+installation of R package dependencies will be incomplete. This can lead
+to confusing errors, because while dependency installation will *not*
+fail in this situation, later steps in your workflow may fail because of
+the missing package(s).
+
 You can learn more about packages in source and binary form
 [here](https://r-pkgs.org/package-structure-state.html#binary-package)
 and