[R-pkg-devel] Submitting CRAN packages with hard-to-meet dependencies

[Dirk Eddelbuettel]

My $0.02:

On 18 April 2016 at 20:23, boB Rudis wrote:
| I would hope CRAN would let this in with some validation (even to the
| point of it possibly adding a new field to DESCRIPTION). It may never
| run on Slolaris or Plan 9, and I - who now runs a CRAN mirror in the
| hopes to eventually have a MacBuilder equivalent service at some point
| in the near future - would also appreciate not having to support large
| scale library & database dependencies, even for a potentially useful
| package like this. The inclusion in CRAN make packages like it usable
| in situations where (for example) github packages would not be (my
| previous employer did not allow non-CRAN packages to be used in
| sensitive data applications).

Won't fly. Wishing and praying alone doesn't make it happen.  You are putting
the burden on CRAN, and the two of them already have 8270+ packages to look after.

Suggestion below.
 
| On Mon, Apr 18, 2016 at 5:16 PM, Oliver Keyes <ironholds at gmail.com> wrote:
| > Good day,
| >
| > I've written an Rcpp-backed R package
| > (https://github.com/Ironholds/poster) that interfaces with the
| > libpostal (https://github.com/openvenues/libpostal) library, written
| > in C.
| >
| > While the two play together perfectly nicely, the problem is
| > submitting the package to CRAN: libpostal is not a common dependency
| > and isn't available in a debianised form for CRAN's testing: the
| > alternative approach, including libpostal *in* the R package, is made
| > impossible since it downloads gigabyte-sized databases for internal
| > use.

How about this:

 -- insert a new layer between poster and libpostal which satisfies the
    build requirements for poster and lets it be installed
    
 -- the layer intercepts calls, and with libpostal not present alerts the
    user

So now postal has a wrapper which may come with its own installer support.

| > What's the approach or guidance on submitting packages in this state?
| > The package includes a configuration script that recognises (in a
| > user-friendly way) when dependencies aren't met, and warns the user
| > appropriately, but it is still ultimately an R package that will not
| > compile on CRAN. Can it be submitted, albeit with installation
| > skipped, or is this unacceptable?

No because it won't build so it cannot be tested.  You can do this, but not
on CRAN.  There is drat ...

Dirk

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