[R-pkg-devel] How to (conditionally) use an archived package (without Suggests)?

[Dirk Eddelbuettel]

On 24 February 2018 at 19:41, Duncan Murdoch wrote:
| Don't throw an error, work around it.  If you have no alternative code, 
| then don't test the "bar" code unless "bar" is installed.
| 
| The basic idea is that your package should pass tests without errors 
| even if "bar" is not available.

100% agreed.
 
| I think Dirk is wrong saying that "bar" has to be available; CRAN isn't 
| going to go looking for it.  But they do want your package to pass all 
| tests even if none of the Suggests packages is available.

I might be wrong but I thought all package in Imports, LinkingTo, Depends and
Suggests are actually checked for availability.

CRAN and BioC work by default, others can be added via Additional_repository
in DESCRIPTION.  And as I recall, not mentioning one leads to some complaint
from R CMD check. But I may well misremember.

Best, Dirk

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