Intermittent failures to run tests on Windows

[PietrH]

From time to time my R CMD CHECK action is failing to run the testthat tests on Windows:

* checking tests ...
  Running 'testthat.R'
 ERROR
Running the tests in 'tests/testthat.R' failed.
Complete output:
  > # This file is part of the standard setup for testthat.
  > # It is recommended that you do not modify it.
  > #
  > # Where should you do additional test configuration?
  > # Learn more about the roles of various files in:
  > # * https://r-pkgs.org/tests.html
  > # * https://testthat.r-lib.org/reference/test_package.html#special-files
  > 
  > library(testthat)
  > library(etn)
  > 
  > test_check("etn")
* DONE

Status: 1 ERROR, 1 NOTE
See
  'D:/a/etn/etn/check/etn.Rcheck/00check.log'
for details.

── R CMD check results ───────────────────────────────────── etn 2.2.2.9000 ────
Duration: 2m 38.1s

❯ checking tests ...
  See below...

❯ checking DESCRIPTION meta-information ... NOTE
  License stub is invalid DCF.

── Test failures ───────────────────────────────────────────────── testthat ────

> # This file is part of the standard setup for testthat.
> # It is recommended that you do not modify it.
> #
> # Where should you do additional test configuration?
> # Learn more about the roles of various files in:
> # * https://r-pkgs.org/tests.html
> # * https://testthat.r-lib.org/reference/test_package.html#special-files
> 
> library(testthat)
> library(etn)
> 
> test_check("etn")

1 error ✖ | 0 warnings ✔ | 1 note ✖
Error: Error: R CMD check found ERRORs
Execution halted
Error: Process completed with exit code 1.
Run ## --------------------------------------------------------------------
Show testthat output
  
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  Platform: x86_64-w64-mingw32/x64
  
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  You are welcome to redistribute it under certain conditions.
  Type 'license()' or 'licence()' for distribution details.
  
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  > # This file is part of the standard setup for testthat.
  > # It is recommended that you do not modify it.
  > #
  > # Where should you do additional test configuration?
  > # Learn more about the roles of various files in:
  > # * https://r-pkgs.org/tests.html
  > # * https://testthat.r-lib.org/reference/test_package.html#special-files
  > 
  > library(testthat)
  > library(etn)
  > 
  > test_check("etn")

It doesn't seem to report why, and subsequent runs do pass. Very strange.

[PietrH]

Failing again https://github.com/inbo/etn/actions/runs/18193027350/job/51792266232?pr=421

[PietrH]

══ Failed tests ════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
── Error ('test-get_animals.R:152:3'): get_animals() allows selecting on animal_project_code ──
Error in `identical(x, y)`: embedded nul in string: '\0\0\0\0�\0\0'; to strip nuls when converting from Arrow to R, set options(arrow.skip_nul = TRUE)
Backtrace:
    ▆
 1. └─testthat::expect_identical(...) at test-get_animals.R:152:3
 2.   └─testthat:::expect_waldo_equal("identical", act, exp, info, ...)
 3.     └─testthat:::waldo_compare(...)
 4.       └─waldo::compare(x, y, ..., x_arg = x_arg, y_arg = y_arg)
 5.         └─waldo:::compare_structure(x, y, paths = c(x_arg, y_arg), opts = opts)
 6.           └─waldo:::is_identical(x, y, opts)

[ FAIL 1 | WARN 0 | SKIP 53 | PASS 310 ]

This last run it is an arrow error that I've seen before, it's quite rare and might be a bug in arrow itself? Or in OpenCPU?

Arrow has had an option since v3.0.0 to deal with it, but I don't like messing with global env to set it. I can use withr to deal with this in the function context I suppose.

Last time it was also in get_animals()