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

[Marius Hofert]

> As already suggested:
>  - create a drat repository,
>  - place a copy of loon (from its repo source or the Archive section) in it
>  - add the repo to Additional_repositories
>  - using Suggests: is now permissible as the package is now useable
>  - the ':::' not declared warning should now go away.

okay, so (afaik) this is just a github repos which contains an exact
copy of the github version of the problematic package (here: loon). I
would then (at some future point) just do a pull to get the latest
source, create the package from there and essential refer to it from
Additional_repositories via: "Additional_repositories:
https://myuser.github.io/drat"

(so if CRAN would actually archive packages directly to a github
repos, one would not need to create a separate copy/repos'es... :-) ).

Btw, at the bottom of http://eddelbuettel.github.io/drat/DratFAQ.html
you refer to 'wikipediatrend' as an example for how to use
Additional_repositories. The link points to
https://github.com/petermeissner/wikipediatrend/blob/master/DESCRIPTION
which does not contain such a line. Might be better to just refer to
your R paper.

Cheers,
M

> An 'archived' package no longer exists in the package dependency graph
> ("Archive" is not a repo) so you need to create one. Here Suggests: and
> Additional_repositories play along together nicely; drat helps create and
> manage a simple repo you can use.
>
> Dirk
>
> --
> http://dirk.eddelbuettel.com | @eddelbuettel | edd at debian.org