[R-pkg-devel] URLs in DESCRIPTION file

[Kevin R. Coombes]

Hi,

I am systematically going through the packages that I maintain on CRAN 
to clean up some administrative details. Specifically, I am (1) changing 
all DESCRIPTION files to use Authirs using R, (2) updating the links in man 
files to include package anchors, and (3) making sure that the output of 
calls to summary in test scripts don't break (i.e., mismatch the saved 
test output) in the 4.5.0 release candidate.

Not surprisingly, this process also finds other issues. Right now,I am 
looking at the package BimodalIndex. The version currently on CRAN (v. 
1.1.9) includes the following URL:
     https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2730180/
On first checking the package, I get informed that this URL has 
"permanently moved" to:
     https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2730180/

The fix seems simple, so I edited the DESCRIPTION file to use the new 
URL instead of the old one. Then I submitted the newly built version 
(1.1.11) to both the current release and the development release at 
winbuilder before submitting the update to CRAN.  R version 4.4.3 comes 
back with a 00check.log that is absolutely "OK". No errors, warnings, or 
notes. But version R 4.5.0 RC comes back with;
     (possibly) invalid URL. Status: 403  Message: Forbidden
I copied the URL as reported in the error message, pasted it into my 
browser, and it worked just fine.

Can I assume that this is just something weird about the corresponding 
winbuilder server at the moment, and go ahead and submit the package? Or 
is there some mysterious change in R 4.5 lurking somewhere that I need 
to deal with?

Thanks,
    Kevin