[Rd] R CMD check and Suggests Packages

[Steve Lianoglou]

Hi,

On Fri, Apr 29, 2011 at 5:29 AM, Prof Brian Ripley
<ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk> wrote:
> On Fri, 29 Apr 2011, Dario Strbenac wrote:
>
>> Hello,
>>
>> In my description file, I have an example data package in Suggests: that
>> I've deleted from my library to test what the user who doesn't have it will
>> experience.
>>
>> However, R CMD check won't even pass my package :
>>
>> * checking package dependencies ... ERROR
>> Package required but not available: RepitoolsExamples
>>
>> Why would it have to be installed, if it's only a data package, that isn't
>> needed in any of my code ? The manual also says "In particular, large
>> packages providing “only” data for examples or vignettes should be listed in
>> ‘Suggests’ rather than ‘Depends’ in order to make lean installations
>> possible."
>
> Why suggest a package that 'isn't needed in any of my code'?
>
> I suspect that is a lie, and some of your code does use it: if some it is
> needed to fully check the package.   There is a option to 'R CMD check' to
> enable the check to go ahead without all the dependencies, so please do
> re-read the manuals to find it.

Here's a stab in the dark:

Perhaps the OP has code in some \examples{} section for some help
(*.Rd) file that then tries to load data from the "suggested" package?

The code in the \examples{} sections of *.Rd files are run during R
CMD check ... so, if you're trying to load data from a suggested
package that may not be installed, perhaps you can wrap those code
blocks with \dontrun{}.

For more info: this is covered in the "Writing R Extensions," but is
also described here:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1454211/what-does-not-run-mean-in-r-help-pages

HTH,
-steve

-- 
Steve Lianoglou
Graduate Student: Computational Systems Biology
 | Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
 | Weill Medical College of Cornell University
Contact Info: http://cbio.mskcc.org/~lianos/contact