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

[Henrik Bengtsson]

I agree with others that this suggests there is a hidden bug in the
code.  In addition to running with Valgrind, R-hub's

> rhub::check(platform="linux-x86_64-rocker-gcc-san")

will compile the native code with the Address Sanitizer (ASan) and the
UndefinedBehaviorSanitizer (UBSan).  Those have helped me in the past
to track down mistakes, and even spot things I was not aware of.  And
it's an ease of mind as a developer when these tools and Valgrind
checks give all OK reports.

The R-hub services is cross-platform and requires no local setup.

/Henrik

On Fri, Oct 22, 2021 at 7:41 AM Bill Dunlap <williamwdunlap using gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I agree with Stefan.  Try using valgrind (on Linux) to check for memory
> misuse:
>
> R --debugger=valgrind --debugger-args="--leak-check=full
> --track-origins=yes"
> ...
> > yourTests()
> > q("no")
>
> -Bill
>
>
> On Fri, Oct 22, 2021 at 7:30 AM Stefan Evert <stefanML using collocations.de>
> wrote:
>
> > Just to add my personal cent to this:  I've had similar issues with an R
> > package some time ago, which kept crashing somewhat unpredictably in the
> > Solaris tests.
> >
> > Debugging was hard because it only happened on Solaris, but in the end it
> > turned out to be due to serious bugs in the code that only happened to
> > surface in the Solaris tests.   I would think that it's likely to be the
> > same for your package, so the segfaults shouldn't be accepted too readily
> > as a platform quirk.
> >
> > Best
> > SE
> >
> >
> > > On 22 Oct 2021, at 15:47, Marc Schwartz via R-help <r-help using r-project.org>
> > wrote:
> > >
> > >
> > > 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.
> >
> > ______________________________________________
> > R-help using r-project.org mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see
> > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> > PLEASE do read the posting guide
> > http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
> > and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
> >
>
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>
> ______________________________________________
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> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.