[R-pkg-devel] compiling and executing binaries while testing

[Dirk Eddelbuettel]

Dear 'code M',

We all participate here with 'vizors up' and clear view of each other's
identities. Please consider doing the same.

On 3 February 2016 at 09:37, code M wrote:
| hi, i am sorry if this has been asked already,
| but i could not find an answer.
| 
| in short: am i allowed to download, compile and
| execute (github) packages while testing?

On you own machine: sure, do whatever.

On CRAN: I do not know, and I don't get to set the rules but at a minimum
there are time limits for tests.
 
| reason for this: the package i develop is a simple
| 'bridge', the goal is to allow users to easily access
| (commonly used or their own) machine learning
| binaries (like LIBSVM). obviously i will not add any

That is an odd example as LIBSVM has been packaged for R for years if not
decades -- eg starting the with common package 'e1071', see JSS Vol 15 Issue
9 in 2006 for a paper by the authors.

| kind of binary to the package itself, but on the other
| hand i cannot test the functionality of the package
| without having a binary. therefore it seems most
| reasonable to compile the binary while testing and
| delete it afterwards.

Maybe you can mock the tests otherwise?  Or just depend on e1071 for testing?
 
| are there any objections to this procedure?

"Maybe".

In general, "it is complicated" and "it depends".  Christoph Sax and I just
created and released a package acting as an installer for binaries off GitHub
but I don't think you one generalize this in as unqualified a manner as you
suggest here.

Dirk

| 
| thanks & all the best,
| aydin
| 
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