[R-pkg-devel] Package used unconditionally only in testing

[Greg Freedman Ellis]

> It should almost certainly be included in Suggests, and nowhere else.
> If that means your tests are skipped, you should feel free to warn the
> user in your test messages:  but it shouldn't cause your tests to fail.

I guess my worry is that my upstream dependencies will break something
without knowing it because the tests won't fail unless httptest is
installed. I really wish there was a way to indicate dependencies for
testing purposes only.

(And, oops, you're right, I meant that I was considering including httptest
in Imports not Depends)

On Fri, Jan 8, 2021 at 12:04 PM David Bosak <dbosak01 using gmail.com> wrote:

> >> Namespace in Imports field not imported from: ‘httptest’
>
> >>    All declared Imports should be used.
>
>
>
> I’ve seen that note before when I forgot to remove a @import reference in
> the Roxygen comments.  Or it is still in the NAMESPACE file when I don’t
> want it to be.
>
>
>
> Sent from Mail <https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=550986> for
> Windows 10
>
>
>
> *From: *Duncan Murdoch <murdoch.duncan using gmail.com>
> *Sent: *Friday, January 8, 2021 11:15 AM
> *To: *Greg Freedman Ellis <gdfermail using gmail.com>;
> r-package-devel using r-project.org
> *Subject: *Re: [R-pkg-devel] Package used unconditionally only in testing
>
>
>
> On 08/01/2021 9:17 a.m., Greg Freedman Ellis wrote:
>
> > Hi all,
>
> >
>
> > I'm trying to update a package to conform to pass tests given
>
> > `_R_CHECK_DEPENDS_ONLY_=TRUE`.
>
> >
>
> > In this package, we only use the package `httptest` during testing, but
> the
>
> > tests are (almost) meaningless if it is not installed, so I would like to
>
> > indicate that it is a required package rather than skipping tests if it
> is
>
> > not installed.
>
>
>
> This sounds wrong.  I don't know the httptest package, but I assume that
>
> since you were only using it for testing, I might be interested in using
>
> your package even if I wasn't interested in installing httptest.  Making
>
> it a hard requirement would force me to install httptest.
>
>
>
> >
>
> > If I move `httptest` to Depends, then I get the error CRAN check note:
>
> >> Namespace in Imports field not imported from: ‘httptest’
>
> >>    All declared Imports should be used.
>
>
>
> You *definitely* shouldn't include it in Depends:  that would force it
>
> onto the search list, and potentially break other things that I'm
>
> running, e.g. if they have name conflicts with it.
>
>
>
> You *probably* shouldn't include it in Imports.  Why force me to load
>
> another package if I'll never use it?  There's a tiny chance that would
>
> push my memory use over the edge, and my own code would fail.
>
>
>
> It should almost certainly be included in Suggests, and nowhere else.
>
> If that means your tests are skipped, you should feel free to warn the
>
> user in your test messages:  but it shouldn't cause your tests to fail.
>
>
>
> > I think this would best be solved by a DESCRIPTION field that indicates a
>
> > package is required, but only for tests, but I do not see such a field.
> The
>
> > only solution I can think of is to have a trivial import of `httptest` in
>
> > the main package to silence the NOTE. Is there a better solution?
>
>
>
> Most users aren't going to run your tests, so they shouldn't be forced
>
> to install software that would let them do so.
>
>
>
> Duncan Murdoch
>
>
>
> ______________________________________________
>
> R-package-devel using r-project.org mailing list
>
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-package-devel
>
>
>

	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]