[Rd] R CMD check and Suggests Packages

[Hervé Pagès]

On 11-05-03 12:43 AM, Martin Maechler wrote:
>>>>>> Hervé Pagès<hpages at fhcrc.org>
>>>>>>      on Mon, 02 May 2011 11:55:08 -0700 writes:
>
>      >  Hi, On 11-04-28 07:00 PM, Dario Strbenac wrote:
>      >>  Hello,
>      >>
>      >>  In my description file, I have an example data package in
>      >>  Suggests: that I've deleted from my library to test what
>      >>  the user who doesn't have it will experience.
>      >>
>      >>  However, R CMD check won't even pass my package :
>      >>
>      >>  * checking package dependencies ... ERROR
>      >>  Package required but not available: RepitoolsExamples
>      >           ^^^^^^^^ confusing!
>
>      >  Wouldn't a message like
>
>      >     Package required for full checking but not available:
>      >  RepitoolsExamples
>
>      >  be more appropriate and avoid a confusion that we've seen
>      >  for a very long time now?
>
> Sure.  But such messages are already produced in current
> versions of R,

Not for me. For example, picking up a CRAN package with a
Suggests field:

   http://cran.fhcrc.org/web/packages/AICcmodavg/index.html

Then, after downloading the source tarball:

   hpages at latitude:~/Downloads$ R-2.13 CMD check AICcmodavg_1.15.tar.gz
   * using log directory ‘/home/hpages/Downloads/AICcmodavg.Rcheck’
   * using R version 2.13.0 (2011-04-13)
   * using platform: x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu (64-bit)
   * using session charset: UTF-8
   * checking for file ‘AICcmodavg/DESCRIPTION’ ... OK
   * checking extension type ... Package
   * this is package ‘AICcmodavg’ version ‘1.15’
   * checking package dependencies ... ERROR
   Package required but not available: lme4

   See the information on DESCRIPTION files in the chapter 'Creating R
   packages' of the 'Writing R Extensions' manual.

Cheers,
H.


> .. at least they are there in the package checking
> source, see
> 	format.check_package_depends()  in
> 	src/library/tools/R/QC.R
> which has e.g.,
>
>        if(length(bad<- x$suggests_but_not_installed)>  1L) {
>            c(gettext("Packages suggested but not available for checking:"),
> 	 ....
>
> and similar for 'Enhances' in lieu of 'Suggests'.
>
> If Dario really uses R 2.13.0 (or newer),
> and he gets the above error message for a package that is not
> required but only suggested,
> I think we'd need a clear, ideally simple,
> reproducible example, here.
>
> Martin
>


-- 
Hervé Pagès

Program in Computational Biology
Division of Public Health Sciences
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
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