[R-pkg-devel] Handling Not-Always-Needed Dependencies? - Part 2

[Dirk Eddelbuettel]

On 4 August 2016 at 11:46, Paul Gilbert wrote:
| If my package has a test that needs another package, but that package is 
| not needed in the /R code of my package, then I indicate it as 
| "Suggests", not as "Depends" nor as "Imports".  If that package is not 
| available when I run R CMD check, should the test pass?

Wrong question.

Better question:  Should the test be running?  My preference is for only
inside of a requireNamespace() (or equivalent) block as the package is not
guaranteed to be present.  In theory.

In practice people seem to unconditionally install it anyway, and think that
is a good idea.  I disagree on both counts but remain in the vocal minority.

Dirk

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