[R-pkg-devel] In Description file, how far removed should the depends go?

[Dason Kurkiewicz]

You just need to list the packages that you explicitly depend on.
Most likely you should be using imports instead of "depends" but
that's a different issue.  It might seem like you're doing the user a
favor by making it explicit *all* the packages that will end up on
their system if your package is installed but what happens when a
package you use changes the packages that it depends on?  Are you
going to take the time to check n layers deep to make sure your
dependency list matches what should be on the users system?  If a
package you use drops one of the other packages that they used to
import in favor of a different package and you don't notice it then
you're going to end up installing a package on the user's system that
they don't actually need.

tldr: Just list the packages you explicitly need.

-Dason Kurkiewicz

On Tue, Aug 29, 2017 at 12:24 PM, Roy Mendelssohn - NOAA Federal
<roy.mendelssohn at noaa.gov> wrote:
> HI All:
>
> What is best practice for the "depends" in the Description file,  in terms of how of how many layers down do I list depends?  For example,  if my package depends on the rerddap package,  is it best practice  to just list rerddap in the depends,  or should I also list all the packages rerddap depends on  - which can go many layers deep.  What is best practice for this?
>
> Thanks,
>
> -Roy
>
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> Roy Mendelssohn
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