[Rd] Building R package: “Found 'rand', possibly from 'rand' (C)” NOTE when checking package

[Uwe Ligges]

On 02.11.2014 12:40, Berend Hasselman wrote:
>
> On 02-11-2014, at 12:20, January Weiner <january.weiner at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> I am building a package that makes a simple visualization. A part of
>> the code is in C++, and utilizes the functions srand() and rand() for
>> purposes not related to statistics (introducing random noise in the
>> visualization). The package compiles without problems on my
>> workstation(s), but when I submitted it to the winbuilder service, I
>> got the following weird message:
>>
>> * checking compiled code ... NOTE
>> File 'tagcloud/libs/i386/tagcloud.dll':
>>   Found 'rand', possibly from 'rand' (C)
>>     Object: 'overlap.o'
>>   Found 'srand', possibly from 'srand' (C)
>>     Object: 'overlap.o'
>> File 'tagcloud/libs/x64/tagcloud.dll':
>>   Found 'rand', possibly from 'rand' (C)
>>     Object: 'overlap.o'
>>   Found 'srand', possibly from 'srand' (C)
>>     Object: 'overlap.o'
>>
>> Compiled code should not call entry points which might terminate R nor
>> write to stdout/stderr instead of to the console, nor the C RNG.
>>
>> To the best of my knowledge, I don't see where in the code I "call
>> entry points which might terminate R" or "write to stdout/stderr", but
>> then, if I remove the calls to rand/srand, this message disappears.
>>
>
> Which version of R on your workstation?
> Your code should also not call the C RNG (rand and srand) as the message clearly states.


Right: set.seed() only controls R'd RNG, hence use that one so that your 
users can conveniently reproduce their visualizations with your package.

Best,
Uwe Ligges


> Berend
>
>> You can review the package her:e
>> http://win-builder.r-project.org/toy6frr57aCU/
>>
>> Kind regards,
>>
>> January
>>
>> --
>> -------- January Weiner --------------------------------------
>>
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