R devel - Aug 2014 - Is using devtools::release no longer allowed?

I recently tried to submit a package to CRAN using the release
function in the devtools package and got the response:
> The policies asked you to use the webform: do so in future.
I think that the relevant line in the policies are:
> When submitting a package to CRAN you should use the submission form at
> http://CRAN.R-project.org/submit.html (and not send an email). You will be
sent
> a confirmation email which needs to be accepted.
> If this fails, upload by anonymous ftp to
ftp://CRAN.R-project.org/incoming/ and
> send a (plain text ASCII) email at the same time, with subject line as
specified below.
As far as I know, the release function uses the second method, so I
don't quite understand what the problem is.

Has that method of submission been banned?

-- 
Regards,
Richie

Learning R
4dpiecharts.com

On 19/08/2014 9:28 AM, Richard Cotton wrote:
> I recently tried to submit a package to CRAN using the release
> function in the devtools package and got the response:
>
> > The policies asked you to use the webform: do so in future.
>
> I think that the relevant line in the policies are:
>
> > When submitting a package to CRAN you should use the submission form
at
> > http://CRAN.R-project.org/submit.html (and not send an email). You
will be sent
> > a confirmation email which needs to be accepted.
>
> > If this fails, upload by anonymous ftp to
ftp://CRAN.R-project.org/incoming/ and
> > send a (plain text ASCII) email at the same time, with subject line as
specified below.
>
> As far as I know, the release function uses the second method, so I
> don't quite understand what the problem is.
>
> Has that method of submission been banned?
>
Presumably the second method is less convenient for the CRAN maintainers 
than the first, so you should only use it if the first method fails.  As 
the policy says.

Duncan Murdoch

Hi Richie,

On 19 August 2014 at 16:28, Richard Cotton wrote:
| I recently tried to submit a package to CRAN using the release
| function in the devtools package and got the response:
| 
| > The policies asked you to use the webform: do so in future.
| 
| I think that the relevant line in the policies are:
| 
| > When submitting a package to CRAN you should use the submission form at
| > http://CRAN.R-project.org/submit.html (and not send an email). You will
be sent
| > a confirmation email which needs to be accepted.
| 
| > If this fails, upload by anonymous ftp to
ftp://CRAN.R-project.org/incoming/ and
| > send a (plain text ASCII) email at the same time, with subject line as
specified below.
| 
| As far as I know, the release function uses the second method, so I
| don't quite understand what the problem is.
| 
| Has that method of submission been banned?

i)   AFAICT devtools is just one package by one very talented and prolific
     author -- but it was never blessed by R Core or CRAN, so the first error
here
     may just be your assumptions.  Then again, I presume devtools
'just' used
     ftp and the issue may be that ftp might be deprecated. 

ii)  CRAN Policies change, but to our chagrin changes are (were?) somewhat
     infrequently communicated. However, just this weekend I (and presumably
     a larger number of other package author, so I assume you were included)
     received an email by Kurt Hornik with a changeset over the last few
     months. So as of today the preference for the webform must count as
     announced.

iii) Because of ii) and the lack of communication, I created a cronjob based
     on code in and writing to a github repo [1] and posting via twitter [2]
     so you have options for remaining informed if you so desire.

iv)  I haven't had an upload in a few days, but I must have upload well in
     excess of one hundred times via ftp [3] so if it really is frowned upon
     now per i) I am sure to miss it.

Hope this helps,  Dirk


[1] https://github.com/eddelbuettel/crp

[2] https://twitter.com/CRANPolicyWatch

[3] ncftp has a ~/.ncftp/ directory which makes this quasi-stateful and trivial

-- 
http://dirk.eddelbuettel.com | @eddelbuettel | edd at debian.org

On Tue, Aug 19, 2014 at 8:28 AM, Richard Cotton <richierocks at gmail.com>
wrote:
> I recently tried to submit a package to CRAN using the release
> function in the devtools package and got the response:
>
>> The policies asked you to use the webform: do so in future.
>
> I think that the relevant line in the policies are:
>
>> When submitting a package to CRAN you should use the submission form at
>> http://CRAN.R-project.org/submit.html (and not send an email). You will
be sent
>> a confirmation email which needs to be accepted.
>
>> If this fails, upload by anonymous ftp to
ftp://CRAN.R-project.org/incoming/ and
>> send a (plain text ASCII) email at the same time, with subject line as
specified below.
>
> As far as I know, the release function uses the second method, so I
> don't quite understand what the problem is.
The development version of devtools uses the web form method. I will
endeavour to track changes to the CRAN release process as closely as
possible, but as noted elsewhere in this thread, those changes are not
always well communicated. The devtools philosophy is "anything that
can be automated, should be automated".

You may also be eligible for the devtools guarantee: "if because of a
bug in devtools a member of R-core gets angry with you, I will send
you a handwritten apology note. Just forward me the email and your
address, and I'll get a card in the mail."

Hadley

-- 
http://had.co.nz/