[R-pkg-devel] Question about preventing CRAN package archival

[Ben Staton]

My package uses the MIT license, so would that not meet the compatibility
requirements?

I will attempt to reach out to the package author - thanks for your help!

On Wed, Jun 2, 2021 at 10:31 AM Ben Bolker <bbolker using gmail.com> wrote:

>     That all sounds exactly right.
>    GPL >= 2 allows you to use the material without asking permission as
> long as your package is compatibly licensed (e.g. also GPL).
>    Under normal circumstances it would be polite to ask permission, but
> if the reason for doing this is that the maintainer is unreachable in
> the first place ...
>
>   If you want to try a little harder, it seems quite possible that you
> can reach the matrixcalc maintainer at the (personal) e-mail address
> shown in this page:
>
> https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10208324530363130&set=ecnf.1000413042
>
>    (Possibly an identity confusion, but I rate that as unlikely based on
> other facebook snooping)
>
>    I don't think a short, polite e-mail request would be out of bounds,
> they can always ignore it or tell you to go away.
>
>    cheers
>     Ben Bolker
>
> On 6/2/21 1:15 PM, Ben Staton wrote:
> > Hello,
> >
> > Thank you for your detailed list of solutions.
> >
> > I was initially tempted to go with option 1 (move matrixcalc to suggests
> > and check for its existence before using functions that rely on it), but
> as
> > mentioned, this is not a long term fix.
> >
> > I unfortunately can't take on the responsibilities of option 2 (becoming
> > the package maintainer) -- there is much that this package does that I do
> > not understand, and do not wish to feign authority!
> >
> > I plan to take option 3 (copy the needed functions into my package).
> There
> > are only three functions I need from matrixcalc, and all three are fairly
> > simple (is.square.matrix
> > <https://rdrr.io/cran/matrixcalc/src/R/is.square.matrix.R>,
> > is.symmetric.matrix
> > <https://rdrr.io/cran/matrixcalc/src/R/is.symmetric.matrix.R>, and
> > is.positive.definite
> > <https://rdrr.io/cran/matrixcalc/src/R/is.positive.definite.R>) and
> there
> > is only one function in postpack that needs them. I plan to define them
> > within the postpack function. matrixcalc is licensed under GPL >= 2 and
> > based on my scan of the license text, this is allowed. Is that correct?
> >
> > Regarding option 4 (contacting the matrixcalc maintainer), the original
> > email from CRAN mentioned that they have attempted to contact the package
> > author with no response.
> >
> > Thank you!
> >
> > On Wed, Jun 2, 2021 at 9:52 AM J C Nash <profjcnash using gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >> I just downloaded the source matrixcalc package to see what it
> contained.
> >> The functions
> >> I looked at seem fairly straightforward and the OP could likely develop
> >> equivalent features
> >> in his own code, possibly avoiding a function call. Avoiding the
> function
> >> call means NAMESPACE etc. are not involved, so fewer places for getting
> >> into
> >> trouble, assuming the inline code works properly.
> >>
> >> JN
> >>
> >>
> >> On 2021-06-02 12:37 p.m., Duncan Murdoch wrote:
> >>> On 02/06/2021 12:13 p.m., Ben Staton wrote:
> >>>> Hello,
> >>>>
> >>>> I received an email notice from CRAN indicating that my R package
> >>>> ('postpack') will be archived soon if I do not take any action and I
> >> want
> >>>> to avoid that outcome. The issue is not caused by my package, but
> >> instead a
> >>>> package that my package depends on:
> >>>>
> >>>> "... package 'matrixcalc' is now scheduled for archival on 2021-06-09,
> >>>> and archiving this will necessitate also archiving its strong reverse
> >>>> dependencies."
> >>>>
> >>>> Evidently, xyz has been returning errors on new R builds prompting
> CRAN
> >> to
> >>>> list it as a package to be archived. My package, 'postpack' has
> >>>> 'matrixcalc' listed in the Imports field, which I assume is why I
> >> received
> >>>> this email.
> >>>>
> >>>> I want to keep 'postpack' active and don't want it to be archived. I
> >> still
> >>>> need package 'matrixcalc' for my package, but not for most functions.
> >> Could
> >>>> I simply move package 'matrixcalc' to the Suggests list and submit the
> >> new
> >>>> version to CRAN to remove the "Strong Reverse Dependency" issue that
> >>>> triggered this email to avoid CRAN from archiving my package?
> >>>
> >>> That's part of one solution, but not the best solution.
> >>>
> >>> If you move it to Suggests, you should make sure that your package
> >> checks for it before every use, and falls back to
> >>> some other calculation if it is not present.  Be aware that once it is
> >> archived, almost none of your users will have it
> >>> available, so this is kind of like dropping the functions that it
> >> supports.
> >>>
> >>> Another solution which would be great for the community might be for
> you
> >> to offer to take over as maintainer of
> >>> matrixcalc.  Then you'd fix whatever problems it has, and you wouldn't
> >> need to worry about it.  I haven't looked at the
> >>> issues so I don't know if this is feasible.
> >>>
> >>> A third choice would be for you to copy the functions you need from
> >> matrixcalc into your own package so you can drop the
> >>> dependency.  This is generally legal under the licenses that CRAN
> >> accepts, but you should check anyway.
> >>>
> >>> A fourth choice would be for you to contact the matrixcalc maintainer,
> >> and help them to fix the issues so that
> >>> matrixcalc doesn't get archived.  They may or may not be willing to
> work
> >> with you.
> >>>
> >>> I'd say my third choice is the best choice in the short term, and 2nd
> or
> >> 4th would be good long term solutions.
> >>>
> >>> Duncan Murdoch
> >>>
> >>> ______________________________________________
> >>> R-package-devel using r-project.org mailing list
> >>> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-package-devel
> >>
> >
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> >
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> >
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