[Rd] library() asks user to accept license of some built-in packages

Mikko Korpela mikko.korpela at helsinki.fi
Mon Oct 3 08:39:29 CEST 2016


On 02/10/16 11:59, Prof Brian Ripley wrote:
> On 27/09/2016 10:49, Mikko Korpela wrote:
>> When 'getOption("checkPackageLicense")' is 'TRUE' and the user calls
>> 'library(grid)' for the first time, R asks the user to either accept or
>> decline the package license. This should not be necessary as the package
>> license is "Part of R ..." with "..." denoting the R version number, and
>> R is free and open source.
>>
>> The unnecessary license question is asked for the built-in packages
>> "compiler", "grid" and "parallel".
>>
>> The source file where the checks happen is
>> "src/library/base/R/library.R". I think one solution could be to add
>> something like
>>
>> if(identical(pkgInfo$DESCRIPTION[["Priority"]], "base")) return()
>>
>> to the beginning of checkLicense(), or add more packages to the
>> hard-coded exemption list checked before calling checkLicense().
>
> Rather, the analysis code has been told about the current licence for
> standard packages.

Great, thank you.

>> Also, in find.package(), the shortcut list of standard packages is
>> missing "compiler".
>
> Which was intentional when the code was written (it is just a shortcut)
> but as 'compiler' is getting used more, it has been added.

Makes perfect sense.

-- 
Mikko Korpela
Department of Geosciences and Geography
University of Helsinki



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