[R-pkg-devel] Procedure for the transfer or an R package maintainership

[Duncan Murdoch]

On 11/10/2020 10:20 a.m., Al T wrote:
> Dear R-devel-community!
> 
> 
> The current maintainer of the 'nephro' R-package
> (https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/nephro/index.html), Cristian
> Pattaro, asked me if I'm willing to take over this work.  I'm very
> interested in stepping in but since I've never done something similar
> before I'd like to ask for some advice.
> 
> 
> I read on stackoverflow
> (https://stackoverflow.com/questions/39223320/transferring-maintainership-of-an-r-package-on-cran)
> that the standard procedure is (in the following order):
> 
> * a message from the old maintainers' email address stating the change
>    in maintainership
> 
> * a change in the DESCRIPTION file with the address of the new
>    maintainer information.
> 
> 
> But I'm interested in the steps afterwards (see also
> https://stackoverflow.com/questions/64299121/what-do-i-have-to-do-if-im-taking-over-the-maintenance-of-a-gnu-r-package-publi):
> 
> * How can I 'link' this package to a new repository on the version
>    control platform of my choice (e.g. https://gitlab.com/ or
>    https://github.com)?

Just change any documentation in the package that points to the wrong 
place.  In particular, this will include the URL: field in the 
DESCRIPTION file, but it may show up in help pages or vignettes as well.

> 
> * How do the package update procedures on CRAN work (e.g. if I want to
>    create a new version of the package)?

That's described quite clearly here:

https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/policies.html

And you *must* create a new version of the package for the maintainer 
change to take effect.  Depending on how many other changes you are 
planning for it, you could make the minimal changes now, and bigger ones 
a month or two later, or wait until everything is ready.
> 
> * How does the update procedure for the repository on r-forge (in my
>    case: https://r-forge.r-project.org/projects/nephro/) work?  Is this
>    identical to the CRAN-package?

r-forge uses Subversion, so to update the package there, just change 
your working copy and commit the changes.  You'll need to be registered 
as a project member with sufficient privileges to do this; that 
registration needs to be done by someone with admin permissions.
> 
> 
> I looked into https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/policies.html as
> well https://cran.r-project.org/doc/manuals/R-exts.html but I couldn't
> find an answer to my questions.

Hopefully I've added enough info for you.

Duncan Murdoch