R devel - Mar 2022 - Making CRAN memory access checks more accessible?

Ha! I was not aware of R-hub having this. Thank you!

On Fri, Feb 25, 2022 at 6:27 PM Duncan Murdoch <murdoch.duncan at
gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On 25/02/2022 11:31 a.m., Micha? Bojanowski wrote:
> > Dear colleagues,
> >
> > Two days after successfully submitting a package to CRAN I received a
> > message about "additional issues" with the package's C++
code
> > (clang-UBSAN to be precise) with a two-week deadline to resolve. While
> > attempting to somewhat blind-foldedly fix the problem I was wondering
> > whether it is sensible and feasible for base R to:
> >
> > 1. Implement/expose all these memory-related tests (c.f.
> >
https://cran.r-project.org/doc/manuals/r-release/R-exts.html#Checking-memory-access)
> > to package developers e.g. via options to R CMD check, much like
> > --use-gct or --use-valgrind are already? Or via a script etc.?
>
> Many users won't be able to run them.
> >
> > or
> >
> > 2. Expand the chapter
> >
https://cran.r-project.org/doc/manuals/r-release/R-exts.html#Checking-memory-access
> > with unequivocal and straightforward instructions how to setup and run
> > these tests locally on different platforms? I believe that the current
> > version of the manual is inaccessible to anybody but hardcore C/C++
> > developers while there is a broader spectrum of ppl able to write some
> > C without the deep understanding of the internals.
>
> I doubt if the instructions in WRE could be simplified and still work.
>
>
> >
> > While I noticed that a similar problem has triggered some heat on
> > Twitter recently I independently decided to write to you all here to
> > ask the question above. I believe it might be rather difficult for
> > package contributors to adhere to tests which they are unable to
> > execute locally (or by a CI service). Alas, in the end it will end-up
> > with a developer playing package ping-pong with CRAN maintainers whose
> > time is a valuable resource.
>
> I think R-hub offers UBSAN services.  Have you tried those?
>
> Duncan Murdoch

On 2/26/22 00:49, Micha? Bojanowski wrote:
> Ha! I was not aware of R-hub having this. Thank you!
If you can't find the cause of the problem from the reports, you can 
also ask for help e.g. on R-pkg-devel. Others may be able to help 
identifying the cause in the code or possibly have useful suggestions 
for cleanups/simplifications, which will eventually lead to fixing also 
the reported issue.

Tomas
>
> On Fri, Feb 25, 2022 at 6:27 PM Duncan Murdoch <murdoch.duncan at
gmail.com> wrote:
>> On 25/02/2022 11:31 a.m., Micha? Bojanowski wrote:
>>> Dear colleagues,
>>>
>>> Two days after successfully submitting a package to CRAN I received
a
>>> message about "additional issues" with the package's
C++ code
>>> (clang-UBSAN to be precise) with a two-week deadline to resolve.
While
>>> attempting to somewhat blind-foldedly fix the problem I was
wondering
>>> whether it is sensible and feasible for base R to:
>>>
>>> 1. Implement/expose all these memory-related tests (c.f.
>>>
https://cran.r-project.org/doc/manuals/r-release/R-exts.html#Checking-memory-access)
>>> to package developers e.g. via options to R CMD check, much like
>>> --use-gct or --use-valgrind are already? Or via a script etc.?
>> Many users won't be able to run them.
>>> or
>>>
>>> 2. Expand the chapter
>>>
https://cran.r-project.org/doc/manuals/r-release/R-exts.html#Checking-memory-access
>>> with unequivocal and straightforward instructions how to setup and
run
>>> these tests locally on different platforms? I believe that the
current
>>> version of the manual is inaccessible to anybody but hardcore C/C++
>>> developers while there is a broader spectrum of ppl able to write
some
>>> C without the deep understanding of the internals.
>> I doubt if the instructions in WRE could be simplified and still work.
>>
>>
>>> While I noticed that a similar problem has triggered some heat on
>>> Twitter recently I independently decided to write to you all here
to
>>> ask the question above. I believe it might be rather difficult for
>>> package contributors to adhere to tests which they are unable to
>>> execute locally (or by a CI service). Alas, in the end it will
end-up
>>> with a developer playing package ping-pong with CRAN maintainers
whose
>>> time is a valuable resource.
>> I think R-hub offers UBSAN services.  Have you tried those?
>>
>> Duncan Murdoch
> ______________________________________________
> R-devel at r-project.org mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel

On Mon, Feb 28, 2022 at 11:06 AM Tomas Kalibera
<tomas.kalibera at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On 2/26/22 00:49, Micha? Bojanowski wrote:
> > Ha! I was not aware of R-hub having this. Thank you!
>
> If you can't find the cause of the problem from the reports, you can
> also ask for help e.g. on R-pkg-devel. Others may be able to help
> identifying the cause in the code or possibly have useful suggestions
> for cleanups/simplifications, which will eventually lead to fixing also
> the reported issue.
Ideally I'd prefer to be able to run a test locally before
"harassing"
other people on the internet, but that's a good point Tomas, thank
you. For some reason the existence of r-pkg-devel escaped me...
Best, Michal