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

[Henrik Bengtsson]

R CMD check --as-cran will give an ERROR if not all Suggest:ed
packages are installed and available when it runs.

/Henrik

On Fri, Jan 8, 2021 at 11:25 AM Greg Freedman Ellis <gdfermail using gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > 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
> >
> >
> >
>
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