[R-pkg-devel] CRAN check error in Debian R only

[Ben Bolker]

   It's surprising that this is only an error on Debian ...
   In general "strong dependencies not in mainstream repositories" is a 
non-starter. Here is the relevant paragraph from the CRAN repository 
policies:

 > Packages on which a CRAN package depends should be available from a 
mainstream repository ...  [where "depends" means 
"Depends/Imports/LinkingTo]

    In principle you could create a package that only "Suggests:" INLA 
(and uses it conditionally) but is effectively non-functional without it 
(i.e. in the absence of INLA, all examples or tests that depend on INLA 
are disabled).  This does seem to defeat the intention of the policy, 
though.  I don't know if the CRAN maintainers would reject it for 
violating the spirit of the policy ...

    cheers
     Ben Bolker


On 9/6/20 3:48 PM, Edoardo Baldoni wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> I am trying to publish on CRAN a package that uses the INLA::inla function
> from the INLA package. The INLA package is outside CRAN. After package
> submission, CRAN gives me an error that seems to be related to the use of
> this INLA::inla function on Debian R. The error says that the INLA package
> is not available. Below the result of the CRAN check.
> 
> Can I do anything about it? Can I still publish my package on CRAN?
> Thanks
> Edoardo
> 
> package AGPRIS_1.0.tar.gz does not pass the incoming checks automatically,
> please see the following pre-tests:
> Windows: <
> https://win-builder.r-project.org/incoming_pretest/AGPRIS_1.0_20200906_195909/Windows/00check.log
>>
> Status: 1 WARNING, 2 NOTEs
> Debian: <
> https://win-builder.r-project.org/incoming_pretest/AGPRIS_1.0_20200906_195909/Debian/00check.log
>>
> Status: 1 ERROR, 1 WARNING
> 
>   * using log directory ‘/srv/hornik/tmp/CRAN/AGPRIS.Rcheck’
> 
> * using R Under development (unstable) (2020-09-04 r79137)
> * using platform: x86_64-pc-linux-gnu (64-bit)
> * using session charset: UTF-8
> * checking for file ‘AGPRIS/DESCRIPTION’ ... OK
> * this is package ‘AGPRIS’ version ‘1.0’
> * package encoding: UTF-8
> * checking CRAN incoming feasibility ... WARNING
> Maintainer: ‘Edoardo Baldoni <edoardo.baldoni using gmail.com>’
> 
> New submission
> 
> Strong dependencies not in mainstream repositories:
>    INLA
> 
> Size of tarball: 13345524 bytes
> * checking package namespace information ... OK
> * checking package dependencies ... ERROR
> Package required but not available: ‘INLA’
> 
> See section ‘The DESCRIPTION file’ in the ‘Writing R Extensions’
> manual.
> * DONE
> Status: 1 ERROR, 1 WARNING
> 
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> 
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