R devel - Jul 2014 - proposed change of check message when VIgnetteBuilder package is not declared as a dependency

Hi,

I notice in R-3.1.1, if a package specifies a VignetteBuilder (such as knitr) in
its DESCRIPTION file, but
does not also depend on the specified package (in either Depends, Imports, or
Suggests), that R CMD check will say:

* checking package dependencies ... ERROR
VignetteBuilder package not declared: ?knitr?

I'm glad this situation is now caught by R CMD check, but I think the
message text should be changed, because the message is confusing. Indeed, the
VignetteBuilder package *was* declared, in the VignetteBuilder line. The problem
is that there's no dependency on it, so no automated way to install it for
building or checking.

Can the message instead say something like:

Package 'knitr' must be in Depends, Imports, or Suggests field of
DESCRIPTION file.

?

A possible patch against trunk:

$ svn diff
Index: src/library/tools/R/QC.R
==================================================================---
src/library/tools/R/QC.R	(revision 66127)
+++ src/library/tools/R/QC.R	(working copy)
@@ -3056,7 +3056,7 @@
       if(length(bad <- x$required_for_checking_but_not_installed) > 1L) {
           c(.pretty_format2("VignetteBuilder packages required for
checking but not installed:", bad), "")
       } else if(length(bad)) {
-          c(sprintf("VignetteBuilder package required for checking but
installed: %s", sQuote(bad)), "")
+          c(sprintf("Package %s must be in Depends, Imports, or Suggests
field of DESCRIPTION file.", sQuote(bad)), "")
       },
       if(length(bad <- x$missing_vignette_depends)) {
           c(if(length(bad) > 1L) {


Thanks,
Dan

On 7/11/2014 4:49 PM, Dan Tenenbaum wrote:> Hi,
 >
 > I notice in R-3.1.1, if a package specifies a VignetteBuilder (such
 > as knitr) in its DESCRIPTION file, butdoes not also depend on the
 > specified package (in either Depends, Imports, or Suggests), that R
 > CMD check will say:
 >
 > * checking package dependencies ... ERROR
 > VignetteBuilder package not declared: ?knitr?
 >
 > I'm glad this situation is now caught by R CMD check, but I think
 > the message text should be changed, because the message is confusing.
 > Indeed, the VignetteBuilder package *was* declared, in the
 > VignetteBuilder line. The problem is that there's no dependency on it,
 > so no automated way to install it for building or checking.
 >
 > Can the message instead say something like:
 >
 > Package 'knitr' must be in Depends, Imports, or Suggests field of
 > DESCRIPTION file.
 >
 > ?

You shouldn't leave out the information that the package in question is 
being mentioned because it is declared in VignetteBuilder. I would 
suggest something more like:

VignetteBuilder package 'knitr' must be in Depends, Imports, or Suggests
field of DESCRIPTION file.

-- 
Brian S. Diggs, PhD
Senior Research Associate, Department of Surgery
Oregon Health & Science University