I would like advise and help in interpreting a part of the CRAN Repository Policy. It states, "Downloads of additional software or data as part of package installation or startup should only use secure download mechanisms (e.g., ‘https’ or ‘ftps’)."
>From this, I take that it is permissible for a package to use its .onLoad function to download and install files in the package's subdirectory. E.g., for the package 'foo', the .onLoad function could place items in a subdirectory of 'system.file(package="foo")'. Since package installation called the .onLoad function when "testing if installed package can be loaded," this would work (assuming the computer has internet access at the time, otherwise the download could be skipped). Once downloaded, the package wouldn't need to download it ever again. The benefit of this approach is that the additional software is automatically downloaded when the package is installed, rather than the user knowing they having to manually call a special function to download the software (to another location) after package installation. Does this seem like a valid approach for CRAN? And, does the answer change when I get R CMD check says: checking installed package size ... NOTE installed size is 182.1Mb This is just a NOTE, so my understanding is that is permissible. Any thoughts? Thanks!! -- David ______________________________________________ R-package-devel@r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-package-devel
