Re: [R-pkg-devel] Clarifying CRAN's external libraries policy

[Nic Crane]

Hi Simon,

The email that Neal is referring to was sent by me (this email
address) to c...@r-project.org on Mon, 23 Oct 2023.

Thanks,

Nic


On Mon, 29 Jan 2024 at 18:51, Simon Urbanek  wrote:
>
> Neal,
>
> generally, binaries are not allowed since CRAN cannot check the provenance so 
> it's not worth the risk, and it's close to impossible to maintain them over 
> time across different systems, toolchains and architectures as they evolve. 
> Historically, some packages allowed to provide binaries (e.g., back when the 
> Windows toolchain was not as complete and there was only Win32 target it was 
> more common to supply a Windows binary) and CRAN was more lenient, but it 
> should be avoided nowadays as it was simply too fragile.
>
> As Andrew pointed out in special circumstances you can use external 
> hash-checked *source* tar balls, but generally you should provide sources in 
> the package.
>
> I do not see any e-mail from you to c...@r-project.org about this, so please 
> make sure you are using the correct e-mail if you intend to plead your case.
>
> Cheers,
> Simon
>
>
>
> > On Jan 30, 2024, at 3:11 AM, Neal Richardson  
> > wrote:
> >
> > Hi,
> > CRAN's policy on using external C/C++/Fortran/other libraries says:
> >
> > "Where a package wishes to make use of a library not written solely for the
> > package, the package installation should first look to see if it is already
> > installed and if so is of a suitable version. In case not, it is desirable
> > to include the library sources in the package and compile them as part of
> > package installation. If the sources are too large, it is acceptable to
> > download them as part of installation, but do ensure that the download is
> > of a fixed version rather than the latest. Only as a last resort and with
> > the agreement of the CRAN team should a package download pre-compiled
> > software."
> >
> > Apologies if this is documented somewhere I've missed, but how does one get
> > CRAN's agreement to download pre-compiled software? A project I work with
> > has been seeking permission since October, but emails to both
> > c...@r-project.org and cran-submissi...@r-project.org about this have not
> > been acknowledged.
> >
> > I recognize that this mailing list is not CRAN, but I was hoping someone
> > here might know the right way to reach the CRAN team to provide a judgment
> > on such a request.
> >
> > Thank you,
> > Neal
> >
> >   [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
> >
> > __
> > R-package-devel@r-project.org mailing list
> > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-package-devel
> >
>
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Re: [R-pkg-devel] Clarifying CRAN's external libraries policy

[Nic Crane]

Thanks Simon.

As far as I can tell, I did not receive any reply to that email; would you
mind re-sending it?

Nic


On Mon, 29 Jan 2024, 19:31 Simon Urbanek, 
wrote:

> Nic,
>
> as far as I can see that thread was clearly concluded that it is not a
> special case that would require external binary downloads.
>
> Cheers,
> Simon
>
>
> > On Jan 30, 2024, at 11:11 AM, Nic Crane  wrote:
> >
> > Hi Simon,
> >
> > The email that Neal is referring to was sent by me (this email
> > address) to c...@r-project.org on Mon, 23 Oct 2023.
> >
> > Thanks,
> >
> > Nic
> >
> >
> > On Mon, 29 Jan 2024 at 18:51, Simon Urbanek 
> wrote:
> >>
> >> Neal,
> >>
> >> generally, binaries are not allowed since CRAN cannot check the
> provenance so it's not worth the risk, and it's close to impossible to
> maintain them over time across different systems, toolchains and
> architectures as they evolve. Historically, some packages allowed to
> provide binaries (e.g., back when the Windows toolchain was not as complete
> and there was only Win32 target it was more common to supply a Windows
> binary) and CRAN was more lenient, but it should be avoided nowadays as it
> was simply too fragile.
> >>
> >> As Andrew pointed out in special circumstances you can use external
> hash-checked *source* tar balls, but generally you should provide sources
> in the package.
> >>
> >> I do not see any e-mail from you to c...@r-project.org about this, so
> please make sure you are using the correct e-mail if you intend to plead
> your case.
> >>
> >> Cheers,
> >> Simon
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>> On Jan 30, 2024, at 3:11 AM, Neal Richardson <
> neal.p.richard...@gmail.com> wrote:
> >>>
> >>> Hi,
> >>> CRAN's policy on using external C/C++/Fortran/other libraries says:
> >>>
> >>> "Where a package wishes to make use of a library not written solely
> for the
> >>> package, the package installation should first look to see if it is
> already
> >>> installed and if so is of a suitable version. In case not, it is
> desirable
> >>> to include the library sources in the package and compile them as part
> of
> >>> package installation. If the sources are too large, it is acceptable to
> >>> download them as part of installation, but do ensure that the download
> is
> >>> of a fixed version rather than the latest. Only as a last resort and
> with
> >>> the agreement of the CRAN team should a package download pre-compiled
> >>> software."
> >>>
> >>> Apologies if this is documented somewhere I've missed, but how does
> one get
> >>> CRAN's agreement to download pre-compiled software? A project I work
> with
> >>> has been seeking permission since October, but emails to both
> >>> c...@r-project.org and cran-submissi...@r-project.org about this have
> not
> >>> been acknowledged.
> >>>
> >>> I recognize that this mailing list is not CRAN, but I was hoping
> someone
> >>> here might know the right way to reach the CRAN team to provide a
> judgment
> >>> on such a request.
> >>>
> >>> Thank you,
> >>> Neal
> >>>
> >>>  [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
> >>>
> >>> __
> >>> R-package-devel@r-project.org mailing list
> >>> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-package-devel
> >>>
> >>
> >> __
> >> R-package-devel@r-project.org mailing list
> >> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-package-devel
> >
>
>

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Re: [R-pkg-devel] Package required but not available: ‘arrow’

[Nic Crane]

FWIW the arrow maintainers are aware of this and we submitted a fix to CRAN
a couple of weeks ago, which is currently in the review queue at
https://cran.r-project.org/incoming/pending/

Nic

On Thu, 22 Feb 2024 at 09:22, Park, Sung Jae  wrote:

> Thank you so much for all of you! I haven’t thought that ‘arrow’ package
> itself will have an error.
> Since ‘arrow’ package isn’t a crucial component of our package, I made
> ‘arrow’ package into ‘Suggests’ and update cran-comment.md accordingly.
> I appreciate your advice once again.
>
> Best,
> --Sungjae
>
> From: Dénes Tóth 
> Date: Thursday, February 22, 2024 at 6:47 AM
> To: Duncan Murdoch , Park, Sung Jae <
> spa...@ufl.edu>, r-package-devel@r-project.org <
> r-package-devel@r-project.org>
> Subject: Re: [R-pkg-devel] Package required but not available: ‘arrow’
> [External Email]
>
> Depending on your use case you can also take a look at the nanoarrow
> package (
> https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcran.r-project.org%2Fpackage%3Dnanoarrow&data=05%7C02%7Cspark7%40ufl.edu%7C1e2fd4f4cb684488106208dc339c0e93%7C0d4da0f84a314d76ace60a62331e1b84%7C0%7C0%7C638441992558568835%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=uJO%2BkxcEtEoDRg9ynyEYuOOCjO%2B30L05lwqIaPifijE%3D&reserved=0
> ). Maybe it
> provides all the features you need and has a much smaller footprint than
> 'arrow'.
>
> Best,
> Denes
>
>
> On 2/22/24 10:01, Duncan Murdoch wrote:
> > If you look on the CRAN check results for arrow, you'll see it has
> > errors on the Linux platforms that use clang, and can't be installed
> there.
> >
> > For you to deal with this, you should make arrow into a suggested
> > package, and if it is missing, work around that without generating an
> > error.  Another choice would be to work with the arrow developers to get
> > it to install on the systems where it fails now, but it's a big package,
> > so that would likely be a lot harder.
> >
> > Duncan Murdoch
> >
> > On 21/02/2024 5:15 p.m., Park, Sung Jae wrote:
> >> Hi,
> >>
> >> I’m writing to seek assistance regarding an issue we’re encountering
> >> during the submission process of our new package to CRAN.
> >> The package in question is currently working smoothly on R CMD check
> >> on Windows; however, we are facing a specific error when running R CMD
> >> check on Debian. The error message we’ve got from CRAN is as follows:
> >>
> >> ```
> >> ❯ checking package dependencies ... ERROR
> >>Package required but not available: ‘arrow’
> >>
> >>See section ‘The DESCRIPTION file’ in the ‘Writing R Extensions’
> >> manual.
> >> ```
> >>
> >> We have ensured that the ‘arrow’ package is properly listed in
> >> DESCRIPTION file under the ‘Imports:’.
> >> Could you please provide guidance on how to resolve this? Any help
> >> will be valuable.
> >>
> >> Thank you in advance.
> >>
> >> Best,
> >> --Sungjae
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
> >>
> >> __
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