[R-pkg-devel] Error uploading package to CRAN that depends on packages hosted in GitHub

[Duncan Murdoch]

On 07/07/2021 5:29 a.m., David Enrique Payares García wrote:
> Hello everybody,
> 
> I developed an R package that depends on packages hosted in GitHub.
> In the DESCRIPTION file, I added the R packages (from GitHub ) in the
> "Suggests" section and I included a copy of them in my personal GitHub so
> they can be accessed in the "Additional_repositories:" section.
> 
> 
> Suggests:
>      rmarkdown,
>      ANTsR,
>      ANTsRCore,
>      ITKR,
>      extrantsr,
>      MNITemplate,
>      RAVEL
> Imports:
>      knitr,
>      oro.nifti,
>      fslr,
>      neurobase
> Depends:
>      R (>= 3.5)
> Additional_repositories: https://davidpayares.github.io/drat
> 
> 
> A copy of the R packages my package needs is in
> https://davidpayares.github.io/drat .
> When I submit the package to CRAN, I get this error:
> 
> 
> Suggests or Enhances not in mainstream repositories:
>      ANTsR, ANTsRCore, ITKR, extrantsr, MNITemplate, RAVEL
>    Availability using Additional_repositories specification:
>      ANTsR         yes   https://davidpayares.github.io/drat
>      ANTsRCore     yes   https://davidpayares.github.io/drat
>      ITKR          yes   https://davidpayares.github.io/drat
>      extrantsr     yes   https://davidpayares.github.io/drat
>      MNITemplate   yes   https://davidpayares.github.io/drat
>      RAVEL         yes   https://davidpayares.github.io/drat
> 
> Flavor: r-devel-linux-x86_64-debian-gcc, r-devel-windows-ix86+x86_64
> Check: package dependencies, Result: ERROR
>    Packages suggested but not available for checking:
>      'ANTsR', 'ANTsRCore', 'ITKR', 'extrantsr', 'MNITemplate', 'RAVEL'
> 
>    Namespace dependencies missing from DESCRIPTION Imports/Depends entries:
>      'MNITemplate', 'RAVEL', 'extrantsr'

I think this one is the part causing the ERROR.  Without seeing your 
package I can't say for sure, but I would guess you have made some 
unconditional use of those three packages.  Since they are only 
Suggested packages, you can't do that.  Your package has to run even if 
they are not available at all.  (It may not have full functionality, but 
it shouldn't generate any errors in its tests or examples.)

Duncan Murdoch


> 
> I found that this is the correct way to add dependencies that are not
> hosted in CRAN. However, I do not understand why it is not working. If
> anyone could help me, I would really appreciate it.
> 
> Thank you so much.
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> David Payares
> 
> 	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]
> 
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