[Rd] Is using devtools::release no longer allowed?

[Dirk Eddelbuettel]

Hi Richie,

On 19 August 2014 at 16:28, Richard Cotton wrote:
| I recently tried to submit a package to CRAN using the release
| function in the devtools package and got the response:
| 
| > The policies asked you to use the webform: do so in future.
| 
| I think that the relevant line in the policies are:
| 
| > When submitting a package to CRAN you should use the submission form at
| > http://CRAN.R-project.org/submit.html (and not send an email). You will be sent
| > a confirmation email which needs to be accepted.
| 
| > If this fails, upload by anonymous ftp to ftp://CRAN.R-project.org/incoming/ and
| > send a (plain text ASCII) email at the same time, with subject line as specified below.
| 
| As far as I know, the release function uses the second method, so I
| don't quite understand what the problem is.
| 
| Has that method of submission been banned?

i)   AFAICT devtools is just one package by one very talented and prolific
     author -- but it was never blessed by R Core or CRAN, so the first error here
     may just be your assumptions.  Then again, I presume devtools 'just' used
     ftp and the issue may be that ftp might be deprecated. 

ii)  CRAN Policies change, but to our chagrin changes are (were?) somewhat
     infrequently communicated. However, just this weekend I (and presumably
     a larger number of other package author, so I assume you were included)
     received an email by Kurt Hornik with a changeset over the last few
     months. So as of today the preference for the webform must count as
     announced.

iii) Because of ii) and the lack of communication, I created a cronjob based
     on code in and writing to a github repo [1] and posting via twitter [2]
     so you have options for remaining informed if you so desire.

iv)  I haven't had an upload in a few days, but I must have upload well in
     excess of one hundred times via ftp [3] so if it really is frowned upon
     now per i) I am sure to miss it.

Hope this helps,  Dirk


[1] https://github.com/eddelbuettel/crp

[2] https://twitter.com/CRANPolicyWatch

[3] ncftp has a ~/.ncftp/ directory which makes this quasi-stateful and trivial

-- 
http://dirk.eddelbuettel.com | @eddelbuettel | edd at debian.org