[Rd] how to list external dependencies (i.e., non-R packages)?

[Dan Tenenbaum]

----- Original Message -----
> From: "Kasper Daniel Hansen" <kasperdanielhansen at gmail.com>
> To: "Greg Minshall" <minshall at acm.org>
> Cc: "r-devel" <r-devel at r-project.org>
> Sent: Sunday, July 13, 2014 1:08:56 PM
> Subject: Re: [Rd] how to list external dependencies (i.e., non-R packages)?
> 
> Several packages in Bioconductor (and possibly CRAN) uses
>   SystemRequirements
> in DESCRIPTION, but unless the user reads the DESCRIPTION file, this
> is for
> naught.  Still useful to some people I think.
> 

This is not just for Bioconductor; The R-exts manual (Section 1.1.1) says:

"Dependencies external to the R system should be listed in the ‘SystemRequirements’ field, possibly amplified in a separate README file."

Dan




> Best,
> Kasper
> 
> 
> On Sun, Jul 13, 2014 at 9:13 PM, Greg Minshall <minshall at acm.org>
> wrote:
> 
> > hi.  i'm working on a package which only works if one (or both) of
> > two
> > libraries (Imlib2 and MagickWand) exist on the machine on which the
> > package is compiled and executed.  as currently written, the
> > program
> > purposely generates an error at *compile* time if neither library
> > is
> > available (thinking the earlier the user is notified, the less
> > frustrating).
> >
> > is there a way of specifying this dependency in, say, the
> > DESCRIPTION
> > file?  (seems unlikely, as this is what the whole
> > autotools/configure.ac
> > framework is supposed to deal with.)
> >
> > or, should i take out the compile time error (maybe replace my
> > #error
> > with a #warning), and just generate at error at run time?  (this
> > will
> > require me to figure out what that means for build tests/, but
> > obviously
> > some sort of hack is doable.)
> >
> > cheers, Greg
> >
> > ______________________________________________
> > R-devel at r-project.org mailing list
> > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel
> >
> 
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