R devel - Jul 2014 - creating a package from a development source tree

hi.  this is sort of a software methodology question.

i'm working on developing a package (with C source code).  developing
it, i use autotools, git, make, and such like.  as a result, there are
random files in my source code directory that "R CMD check" would
rather
not see.  some of these files (such as .git and friends) i could arrange
to move to "just above" my development subtree; others of these (such
as
configure.ac and the random crud autoreconf(1) and friends leave laying
around) can't be moved (afaik).

i'm curious how people move from their personal development tree to a
tree from which the package can be passed to "R CMD *".  do
"you" have a
makefile in their tree that creates this?  during development, is this
the path you use for building and testing?

cheers, Greg Minshall

On Jul 1, 2014, at 10:26 AM, Greg Minshall <minshall at acm.org> wrote:
> hi.  this is sort of a software methodology question.
> 
> i'm working on developing a package (with C source code).  developing
> it, i use autotools, git, make, and such like.  as a result, there are
> random files in my source code directory that "R CMD check" would
rather
> not see.  some of these files (such as .git and friends) i could arrange
> to move to "just above" my development subtree; others of these
(such as
> configure.ac and the random crud autoreconf(1) and friends leave laying
> around) can't be moved (afaik).
> 
> i'm curious how people move from their personal development tree to a
> tree from which the package can be passed to "R CMD *".  do
"you" have a
> makefile in their tree that creates this?  during development, is this
> the path you use for building and testing?
> 
> cheers, Greg Minshall

Hi,

Run 'R CMD check' on the file built from 'R CMD build', rather
than on the actual package source file tree, as per:

  http://cran.r-project.org/doc/manuals/r-patched/R-exts.html#Checking-packages

from the Writing R Extensions manual.

You can also use the file .Rbuildignore to define files that should be excluded.
See the fifth paragraph in:

 
http://cran.r-project.org/doc/manuals/r-patched/R-exts.html#Building-package-tarballs


Regards,

Marc Schwartz