[R-pkg-devel] Submitting a package whose unit tests sometimes fail because of server connections

[Will]

Hello everyone,

I'm sorry to bother you, but I would like some help getting a package (
*suppdata*; https://github.com/ropensci/suppdata) available through CRAN.
The package downloads supplementary materials from papers and data
repositories on the basis of their DOI, making reproducible analyses a
little easier to share and create.

The package's unit tests involve downloading data, and when multiple
requests for the same resource are sent from a single machine (as seems to
be done by CRAN's testing servers) the data hosts will sometimes refuse the
connection and so the package's tests will fail. I emphasise that the tests
pass at Travis-CI (https://travis-ci.org/ropensci/suppdata) and OpenCPU (
https://ropensci.ocpu.io/suppdata/info); I am confident this is a
connection issue but I would be grateful to be shown I am wrong. I am not
sure how to solve this problem, and was hoping you might have some advice.
Some things I have considered include:


   1. Skipping all unit tests on CRAN (using something like
   *testtht::skip_on_cran*). This would immediately fix the problem, and as
   a mitigating factor we report automated test result and coverage on the
   package's GitHub page (https://github.com/ropensci/suppdata).
   2. Using HTTP-mocking to avoid requiring a call to a server during tests
   at all. I would be uncomfortable relying solely on this for all tests,
   since if the data hosters changed things we wouldn't know. Thus I would
   still want the Internet-enabled tests, which would also have to be turned
   off for CRAN (see 1 above). This would also be a lot of additional work.
   3. Somehow bypassing the requirement for the unit tests to all pass
   before the package is checked by the CRAN maintainers. I have no idea if
   this is something CRAN would be willing to do, or if it is even possible.
   It would be the easiest option for me, but I don't want to create extra
   work for other people!
   4. Slowing the tests with something like *Sys.sleep*. This might work,
   but would slow the tests massively and so might that cause problems for
   CRAN?

Does anyone have any advice as to which of the above would be the best
option, or who I should email directly about this?

Thank you for your help, and I apologise if I've missed some aspect of the
documentation that already explains how to solve this,

Will Pearse

---

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Will Pearse <http://www.pearselab.com/>
Assistant Professor of Biology, Utah State University
Office: +1-435-797-0831; Room LSB-333
Skype: will.pearse

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