Check for print()/cat() calls outside print/format/summary methods

Flags a print() or cat() call in R/ that isn't nested inside a function whose name looks like a print.*/format.*/summary.* S3 method. Per the CRAN Cookbook, these produce console output a user can't suppress; CRAN's own exception is printing inside print, summary, and similar methods, where it's the whole point of the function.

Usage

cl_check_verbose_output(path = ".")

Arguments

path

Path to the package root. Defaults to the current directory.

Value

A tibble following the cranlint check-result contract; see AGENTS.md.

Details

Two things this check can't detect, so it will over-report relative to what CRAN actually requires: a cat() call writing to a file/connection rather than the console (e.g. cat(x, file = "out.txt")) is still flagged, and the Cookbook's other accepted mitigation – gating the call behind a verbose argument, e.g. if (verbose) cat(...) – isn't recognized as an exemption. Both are worth a manual look before deciding a finding is a real problem.

Examples

pkg_dir <- cl_example_pkg(
  r_files = list(foo.R = c(
    "process <- function(x) {",
    "  cat(\"processing...\\n\")",
    "  x",
    "}"
  ))
)
cl_check_verbose_output(pkg_dir)
#> # A tibble: 1 × 6
#>   check          file     line severity   message               policy_reference
#>   <chr>          <chr>   <int> <ord>      <chr>                 <chr>           
#> 1 verbose_output R/foo.R     2 should_fix cat() produces conso… https://contrib…
unlink(pkg_dir, recursive = TRUE)