gdc_token: return a gdc token from file or environment
Description
The GDC requires an auth token for downloading
data that are "controlled access". For example,
BAM files for human datasets, germline variant calls,
and SNP array raw data all are protected as "controlled
access". For these files, a GDC access token is required.
See the https://docs.gdc.cancer.gov/Data_Portal/Users_Guide/Authentication/#gdc-authentication-tokens.
Note that this function simply returns a string value.
It is possible to keep the GDC token in a variable in R
or to pass a string directly to the appropriate parameter.
This function is simply a convenience function for alternative
approaches to get a token from an environment variable
or a file.
Usage
gdc_token()
Arguments
Value
character(1) (invisibly, to protect against inadvertently printing) the GDC token.
Details
This function will resolve locations of the GDC token in the
following order:
from the environment variable, GDC_TOKEN, expected to
contain the token downloaded from the GDC as a string
using readLines to read a file named in the environment
variable, GDC_TOKEN_FILE
using readLines to read from a file called .gdc_token in the user's
home directory
If all of these fail, this function will return an error.