Invalid multibyte string when printing certain combination of characters with fs::path()

[giocomai]

This is an issue that emerges when a certain, admittedly unusual, combination of valid characters is printed on the console via fs::path(). The shortest combination I found is the following (with the relevant error):

fs::path("śl")

Error in base::nchar(x, type, allowNA, keepNA) :
invalid multibyte string, element 1

The issue does not seem to be related to the ś itself, as the following works nicely:

fs::path("ś")

Obvious solutions such as the following all return the same error:

fs::path(stringi::stri_enc_toutf8("śl"))
fs::path(stringi::stri_enc_tonative("śl"))
fs::path(fs::path_sanitize("śl"))

Error in base::nchar(x, type, allowNA, keepNA) :
invalid multibyte string, element 1

If you look at the reprex, all seemingly works fine. But if I run the same code on the console, then I get the above error.

I include a reprex for reference, as well as a screenshot, since the issue is not fully visible via reprex.

In the real world, this issue emerges as I print fs::path() as a form to show advancement in a script that processes data related to a bunch of cities, including the Polish city of Przemyśl.

Of course there are ways around it, but since it broke my scripts, I still decided to report this. Tested with both the current development version (see reprex below) and version currently on CRAN (1.5.2)

library("fs")

# see e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Przemy%C5%9Bl
x <- "Przemyśl"

# works
print(x)
#> [1] "Przemyśl"

# throws error
fs::path(x)
#> Przemyśl

# throws error
fs::path(stringi::stri_enc_toutf8(x))
#> Przemyśl

# works
fs::path_sanitize(filename = x) 
#> [1] "Przemyśl"

# throws error
fs::path(fs::path_sanitize(filename = x))
#> Przemyśl

# works
y <- invisible(fs::path(x))

# works
stringr::str_c(y)
#> [1] "Przemyśl"

# works
filename <- fs::path(tempdir(), "Przemyśl.txt")

# throws error
fs::path(filename)
#> /tmp/RtmpzO4Dt3/Przemyśl.txt

# works
writeLines("test", fs::path(filename))

# works
fs::path("ś")
#> ś

# works
fs::path("Przemyś")
#> Przemyś

# throws error
fs::path("śl")
#> śl


devtools::session_info()
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#> ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

^{Created on 2022-05-31 by the reprex package (v2.0.1)}

[gaborcsardi]

There is a chance that R 4.2.0 fixes this, if you need a workaround now.

[giocomai]

Thanks! yes, ultimately, even wrapping it in stringr::str_c() fixes it, so there's plenty of workarounds!