[R-SIG-Mac] Setting _R_CHECK_DEPENDS_ONLY_=true

[Koenker, Roger W]

I’m trying to enable  _R_CHECK_DEPENDS_ONLY_=true  option for R CMD check —as-cran  on a 

R version 4.1.3 (2022-03-10) -- "One Push-Up”  on an Intel mac mini.

> .libPaths()
[1] "/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Versions/4.1/Resources/library”

I’ve tried putting  _R_CHECK_DEPENDS_ONLY_=true in ~/.R/check.Renviron

and also tried (in bash) export _R_CHECK_DEPENDS_ONLY_=true in bash prior to R CMD check, but I can’t replicate the errors found with CRAN checking, which is becoming embarrassing.

Kurt offered the following Zen koan:

> The mechanism only works when you only have the base/recommended
> packages in .Library, and the rest in a separate user library. Which
> needs a .libPaths() of lenght at least two …

When I do:

> Sys.getenv("R_LIBS_USER")
[1] "~/Library/R/x86_64/4.1/library”

But as the R Installation and Administration manual says this is only used if it exists, which it doesn’t in my case.  I now interpret this to mean that I should install 4.2, create this directory and reinstall packages so that they appear there rather than under the RHOME directory.   If someone could confirm this or suggest an alternative strategy I’d be most grateful.

Roger