[R] I'd like to request that my R CRAN package is not tested on Solaris OS

[Marc Schwartz]

Hi,

Just to add some additional comments that may be helpful.

1. The CRAN repository policy here:

   https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/policies.html

notes:

"Package authors should make all reasonable efforts to provide 
cross-platform portable code. Packages will not normally be accepted 
that do not run on at least two of the major R platforms. Cases for 
Windows-only packages will be considered, but CRAN may not be the most 
appropriate place to host them."

That would seem to infer that, with reasonable justification, one may be 
able to make a request of the CRAN maintainers to exclude at least one 
of the OS platforms from testing. A request that would be at the 
discretion of the CRAN maintainers and Solaris, in light of the low 
market prevalence, may be a more common exclusion as you have noted below.


2. If you wish to test your package on Solaris, in the absence of using 
a VM, there is a blog post here:

   https://blog.r-hub.io/2020/05/14/checking-your-r-package-on-solaris/

that you may find helpful.


Eric has suggested posting to r-package-devel, and I would agree in 
terms of a larger and focused R package development audience. Albeit, 
you would eventually need to make a direct request to the CRAN 
maintainers (CRAN using R-project.org) to exclude Solaris from testing.

You have specified a deadline below which is only 5 days away, and not 
likely a reasonable constraint, given the volunteer service nature of 
the folks that maintain CRAN. I would suggest that you contact them 
using the e-mail address above, without the deadline, and afford them 
the opportunity to reply to you with what may be reasonable next steps 
given the issues you face.

Regards,

Marc Schwartz



Eric Berger wrote on 10/22/21 9:01 AM:
> Hi Lampros,
> I cannot answer your question but I believe the correct place to post
> such a question would be the r-package-devel list
> 
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-package-devel
> 
> Good luck
> 
> 
> On Fri, Oct 22, 2021 at 2:13 PM lampros mouselimis
> <mouselimislampros using gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Dear R-help team,
>>
>> I'm the maintainer of the textTinyR package. Currently the package fails on
>> the Solaris Operating System (OS), you can see the results in the following
>> weblink: https://cran.r-project.org/web/checks/check_results_textTinyR.html
>>
>> All my packages are tested on Solaris OS automatically but I never check my
>> R packages before submitting to CRAN on Solaris OS because I don't have any
>> experience using it. I also won't be in place to fix this error (even if I
>> utilize a Virtual Machine). Due to the fact that my package works on Linux,
>> Windows and Macintosh (I can fix the errors in all these three OS because I
>> have installations in my Computer) can I request to exclude the textTinyR
>> package from the Solaris OS testing / CRAN checking (that means the Solaris
>> test frameworks will not appear in the CRAN Package test results page)?
>> Moreover, whom should I send an e-mail to make this request?
>>
>> I processed the data of all current packages on CRAN
>> <https://cran.r-project.org/web/checks/check_summary_by_package.html> and
>> there are 153 submitted packages that are not tested on Solaris (I attach
>> the csv file of these packages in this e-mail), which means it's possible
>> for a package to not be tested on this OS.
>>
>> I'd like an answer before the 27th October otherwise the package will be
>> removed from CRAN.
>>
>> Thank you in advance and for your time,
>> Lampros Mouselimis