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rSOILWAT2: An Ecohydrological Ecosystem-Scale Water Balance Simulation Model

Table of contents

1. How to get started
   1. Installation
   2. Documentation
2. Overview of rSW2
3. How to contribute
   1. Code guidelines
   2. Code documentation
   3. Code linting
   4. Code tests
   5. Code versioning
4. Additional notes

<a name="get_started"></a>

How to get started

<a name="install"></a>

Installation

Install rSOILWAT2

Please not that rSOILWAT2 compiles C source code of SOILWAT2 -- see section on binary version below for alternatives. Your computer must be set up adequately (see below for requirements).

• On the command line

  git clone -b main --single-branch --recursive \
      https://github.com/DrylandEcology/rSOILWAT2.git rSOILWAT2
  R CMD INSTALL rSOILWAT2
  

• Using R

  system2(
    command = "git",
    args = paste(
      "clone -b main --single-branch --recursive",
      "https://github.com/DrylandEcology/rSOILWAT2.git",
      "rSOILWAT2"
    )
  )
  tools::Rcmd(args = "INSTALL rSOILWAT2")
  

• Using the remotes R package

  remotes::install_github("DrylandEcology/rSOILWAT2", build_vignettes = TRUE)
  

  Please note that "remotes" will download the latest version of SOILWAT2 irrespective of what the actual submodule status requests (see remotes issue #260). If it happens that the latest SOILWAT2 version doesn't yet work correctly with the latest version of rSOILWAT2 (as has happened in issue #175), then please use one of the other options above to correctly install rSOILWAT2 or explore one of the development branches.

Binary package

If you require a binary version of the 'rSOILWAT2' package (e.g., to distribute to someone without development tools) for a platform to which you do not have access, then you may consider using one of the cloud services (no endorsements), e.g.,

• rhub offers different Linux, Windows, and macOS flavors as targets

Minimal requirements

• on any platform:
  • gcc or clang/llvm toolchains; ideally, gcc >= v4.9 or clang >= v3.3
  • POSIX- make or GNU-compliant make
  • git to download the code
• additionally, on Windows OS:
  • Rtools that match your R version
• on macOS:
  • xcode command line tools (run xcode-select --install on the command line)
  • having agreed to the xcode license (run xcodebuild -license)
  • or, alternatively, the full xcode installation
• optional:
  • a minimal latex installation (see below) and pandoc (RStudio comes bundled with pandoc) to generate package vignettes

Example instructions for a minimal latex installation

• install the R package tinytex

  install.packages("tinytex")
  tinytex::install_tinytex()
  

• if you don't have write permission for /usr/local/bin, then appropriate symlinks are not generated; thus, locate the path to tlmgr, e.g., with help of tinytex::tinytex_root(), and fix symlinks with escalated privileges

  sudo [path/to/]tlmgr path add
  

<a name="get_documentation"></a>

Documentation

rSOILWAT2 offers documentation and code examples of exported functions help(package = "rSOILWAT2"), in particular ?sw_exec, and several vignettes vignette(package = "rSOILWAT2"), in particular vignette("rSOILWAT2_demo", package = "rSOILWAT2").

<a name="rSW2"></a>

Overview of rSW2

The DrylandEcology team hosts a group of related repositories and R packages.

They are organized around two simulation models, i.e., SOILWAT2, an dryland ecosystem water balance simulation model, and STEPWAT2, an individual-based model for dryland plant communities. They are both written in compiled languages.

We developed a family of R packages to support SOILWAT2 and STEPWAT2 simulation experiments:

• rSW2utils provides miscellaneous utility tools
• rSW2st provides spatiotemporal tools including functions to create and interact with netCDF files
• rSW2data provides input data preparation
• rSW2exter provides access to external data
• rSOILWAT2 is a R package that directly connects to SOILWAT2 in memory, i.e., without writing/reading input and output files to/from disk
• rSW2funs calculates new response variables from rSOILWAT2 output
• rSFSW2 manages large rSOILWAT2 simulation experiment
• rSFSTEP2 manages large STEPWAT2 simulation experiment

<a name="contribute"></a>

How to contribute

You can help us in different ways:

1. Reporting issues
2. Contributing code and sending a pull request

Please note that this project is released with a Contributor Code of Conduct. By participating in this project you agree to abide by its terms.

<a name="follow_guidelines"></a>

Follow our guidelines as detailed here

Tests, documentation, and code

We develop code on development branches and, after they are reviewed and pass our checks, merge them into the main branch for release:

• Create a development branch
  • Set the package version number (DESCRIPTION) to a development version (ending in -9000)
  • Start a new section in NEWS
• Develop, document and test code and create a pull request
• Finalize code development
• Once code is reviewed, sufficiently tested, and ready for merging into main
  • Decide on a package version number for the new release
  • Set the package version number in DESCRIPTION
  • Finalize NEWS
• Merge pull request into main and create new rSOILWAT2 release

<a name="code_documentation"></a>

Code documentation

• This is based on the section 'Documentation' of the book 'R packages' by Wickham
• Use roxygen2 to write inline code documentation of functions
• Use regular R-style comments to additionally document code
• Update help pages and the NAMESPACE file with the command devtools::document()
• Add examples to function documentation and check that these examples work with the command devtools::run_examples()

<a name="code_linting"></a>

Code linting

• Please run lintr::lint_package() to confirm that code conforms to our style guide (see file .lintr) and update code style where needed before pushing a commit or finalizing a pull-request.
• These checks are also run automatically as a github action to confirm that a pull-request meets our requirements for merging.

<a name="code_tests"></a>

Code tests and package checks

• This is based on the section 'Testing' of the book 'R packages' by Wickham

• Unit tests

  • Use testthat to add unit tests to the existing framework
  • Run unit tests with the command devtools::test()

• Package checks

  • Package checks are run with devtools::check(cran = TRUE, env_vars = c(NOT_CRAN = "true")) or R CMD build . && NOT_CRAN = "true" R CMD check *.tar.gz

  • Package checks include unit tests, code style, and spelling

  • These checks will be run on the continuous integration frameworks via a workflow in Github Action for pull requests

  • Development/feature branches can only be merged into main if they pass all checks

  • Integration tests: run a default example and examine the output (see also ?sw_exec), e.g.,

    path_demo <- system.file("extdata", "example1", package = "rSOILWAT2")
    x <- rSOILWAT2::sw_exec(dir = path_demo)
    

• Run the following steps locally in order to prepare a pull-request or commit that will be reviewed. Fix any problem and repeat as necessary.

  1. Make sure that the documentation is up-to-date with:

     pkgbuild::compile_dll()
     devtools::document()
     

  2. Run and check the code from the examples and vignettes:

     devtools::run_examples()
     

  3. Run tests as if not on CRAN in an interactive R session.

     # Run in R.app, RStudio, or in an R terminal-session:
     Sys.setenv(NOT_CRAN = "true")
     devtools::test()
     

     Notes:

     • Make sure that no test is skipped. Investigate if any is skipped.
     • Investigate if any warning is reported.
     • This combines unit tests, documentation and code-style checks; the latter take a substantial amount of time to complete. The environmental variable RSOILWAT_ALLTESTS determines whether or not long-running expectations/unit-tests are skipped; the default is "true", i.e., run all expectations/unit-tests. You may decide to run tests while temporary skipping time-intensive tests, e.g.,
     • Sys.setenv(RSOILWAT_ALLTESTS = "false"); devtools::test()
     • RSOILWAT_ALLTESTS="false" R CMD check *tar.gz

  4. Run tests as if not on CRAN in an non-interactive session.

     # Run via shell in the terminal:
     R CMD INSTALL .
     Rscript -e 'Sys.setenv(NOT_CRAN = "true"); devtools::test()'
     

  5. The environmental variable RSOILWAT_INTEGRATIONTESTS determines whether intensive (and potentially interactive) integration tests are executed; the default is "false". To set it to true, e.g.,

     • Sys.setenv(RSOILWAT_INTEGRATIONTESTS = "true"); devtools::test()
     • RSOILWAT_INTEGRATIONTESTS="true" R CMD check *tar.gz

  6. Run R package-level checks as if on CRAN.

     # Run in R.app, RStudio, or in an R terminal-session:
     Sys.setenv(NOT_CRAN = "false")
     devtools::check(cran = TRUE)
     

     Notes:

     • Avoid adding new R CMD check warnings and/or notes; see, milestone Clean code

  7. There are additional tests available in tools/ (which may have additional dependencies), e.g.,

     • test concurrent reading and writing to a weather database with test_dbW_concurrency.R

Debugging compiled code

• Compile C code in src/ and src/SOILWAT2/ in 'debugging' mode. This will define SWDEBUG in SOILWAT2 source code (see the README of SOILWAT2):
  • Install package on the command line:

    MAKEFLAGS="PKG_DEBUG=-DRSWDEBUG" R CMD INSTALL --preclean --clean .
    

  • Using R package devtools (e.g., while running R interactively):

    Sys.setenv(PKG_DEBUG="-DRSWDEBUG")
    devtools::clean_dll() # if you debug in `src/SOILWAT2`
    devtools::load_all(compile = TRUE)
    

• For a more formal approach using gdb/lldb, please see the section 'Debugging-compiled-code' in the 'R-exts' manual

How to update the submodule 'SOILWAT2' to the latest commit

git submodule update --remote #--remote: uses the latest commit; without --remote: uses the previously defined commit
git commit -am "Pulled down latest commit 'COMMIT-FLAG' for submodule SOILWAT2"
git push

Change the branch of submodule SOILWAT2

open .gitmodules # and change branch = <branch> to the desired <branch>

git submodule init
git submodule update --remote #--remote: uses the latest commit; without --remote: uses the previously defined commit
git commit -am "Changed to branch 'branch' commit 'COMMIT-FLAG' for submodule SOILWAT2"
git push

Run the script ./data-raw/prepare_testInput_objects.R from within rSOILWAT2/ if the SOILWAT2 updated included changes to the input files.

<a name="code_versioning"></a>

Version numbers

We base our versions on the guidelines of semantic versioning with version numbers of MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH.

We create a new release for each update to the main branch; a new release is identified by the package version (DESCRIPTION) and by a github release that also creates a git tag of the same name. The main branch is updated via pull requests from development branches after they are reviewed and pass required checks.

If the version numbers changes, then the following files must be updated

• DESCRIPTION: adjust lines 'Version'
• NEWS: add a new section describing pertinent changes to a package user (see section 'NEWS' of the book 'R packages' by Wickham and tidyverse news style)

<a name="more_notes"></a>

Notes

Citation

Please cite the package if you publish results based on simulations carried out with our package, see citation("rSOILWAT2"), and we would like to hear about your publication.

Some other references

• Schlaepfer, D. R., W. K. Lauenroth, and J. B. Bradford. 2012. Ecohydrological niche of sagebrush ecosystems. Ecohydrology 5:453-466.
• Bradford, J. B., D. R. Schlaepfer, and W. K. Lauenroth. 2014. Ecohydrology of adjacent sagebrush and lodgepole pine ecosystems: The consequences of climate change and disturbance. Ecosystems 17:590-605.
• Palmquist, K.A., Schlaepfer, D.R., Bradford, J.B., and Lauenroth, W.K. 2016. Mid-latitude shrub steppe plant communities: climate change consequences for soil water resources. Ecology 97:2342–2354.

References for the original version of Soilwat

• Parton, W.J. (1978). Abiotic section of ELM. In: Grassland simulation model (ed. Innis, G.S.). Springer New York, NY, pp. 31-53.
• Sala, O.E., Lauenroth, W.K. & Parton, W.J. (1992). Long-term soil-water dynamics in the shortgrass steppe. Ecology, 73, 1175-1181.

Considerations and Caveats

We haven't really published the code yet nor prepared it for sharing (though through our use of github made it openly accessible), it is actively and gradually being developed by the Lauenroth lab and affiliates, and there is no manual either - we cannot give you individual support in setting up and running the model except if we agreed on a collaboration or similar agreement.

Not every part of the code has been extensively tested or is in a stable state. Similarly, not every combination of model inputs and options has been evaluated in depth and there is not guarantee for anything to work. The code comes with no warranty and no guarantees, expressed or implied, as to suitability, completeness, accuracy, and whatever other claim you would like to make.

There is no graphical user interface, help pages and available documentation may be out of date, and you will need to write your own tools to analyze outputs.

Funding

Work on this package has been supported by various funds managed by Dr. John Bradford (USGS), Dr. Bill Lauenroth (Yale University), Dr. Kyle Palmquist (Marshall University), and Dr. Daniel Schlaepfer.

License

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, version 3 of the License.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.