[R-pkg-devel] Problem with "additional repository".

[Duncan Murdoch]

On 15/10/2023 9:34 p.m., Rolf Turner wrote:
> 
> I have submitted a new package to CRAN, and this package has been
> knocked back on the basis of a NOTE:
> 
>> * checking package dependencies ... NOTE
>> Package suggested but not available for checking: 'ionChannelData'
> 
> This suggested package consists of data sets, the size of which is too
> large to satisfy CRAN's constraints. I put this package in a repository
> on github, from which it can be accessed by users.
> 
> My DESCRIPTION file contains the line:
> 
>> Additional_repositories: https://rolfturner.r-universe.dev
> 

Is that web site set up as a repository?  My impression was that it 
needed to be, so people could do

   install.packages("ionChannelData", repos = 
"https://rolfturner.r-universe.dev")

You can use the "drat" package to set up a tiny repository quickly.

Duncan


> The given URL seems to work, in that users can indeed load the
> ionChannelData package via the command
> 
>> install.packages("ionChannelData",repos="https://rolfturner.r-universe.dev")
> 
> I was under the impression that this was all that I needed to do.  The
> CRAN checking process acknowledges the existence of the repository in
> question:
> 
>> Suggests or Enhances not in mainstream repositories:
>>    ionChannelData
>> Availability using Additional_repositories specification:
>>    ionChannelData   yes   https://rolfturner.r-universe.dev
> 
> So CRAN knows about this repository.  Why can it not make use of it?
> 
> What can/should I do to resolve this problem?
> 
> I guess I could simply *not* Suggest ionChannelData.  But what then, is
> the point of the option of including an Additional_repositories field in
> the DESCRIPTION file?
> 
> cheers,
> 
> Rolf Turner
>