R help - Mar 2018 - Is it good practice to have a package depend on Rtools(for unziping of .7z and.rar files)? Crab legal?

I created this package,

https://github.com/lucasmation/microdadosBrasil

which we are preparing for Cran submission. The package facilitates
downloading and reading most of the microdatasets (household surveys,
Census, etc). For each dataset it:

(a) downloads the data from  the data providers
(b) "unzip" the necessary files
(c) imports the data into R.

For  (b), some of the datasets come in .7z and .rar format which ideally
the package should unzip (or whatever the correct them for uncompacting
these file types is) so that the underlying .txt or .csv files can be
imported into R.

Not being able to find a solution within R (R only deals with .zip files),
we added a Rtools dependency, in order to use Rtools expanded
unzipping capabilities on the .7z and .rar  files.

Is adding a Rtools dependency a bad practice for an R package? Is it even
allowed by cran? I mean, it changes requires the installation of a
standalone software (Rtools), which does not seem very user-friendly.

Is there any alternative for unzipping .rar and .7z files that only depends
on R packages and works independently of the OS, etc?

If the Rtools is a big problem, I could also revert to our initial strategy
that did not support .7z and .rar "unzipping", requesting the user to
manually unpack those files.

regards
Lucas

	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]

r-package-devel is the right mailing list for your query, not here.


Cheers,
Bert


Bert Gunter

"The trouble with having an open mind is that people keep coming along
and sticking things into it."
-- Opus (aka Berkeley Breathed in his "Bloom County" comic strip )


On Thu, Mar 29, 2018 at 6:56 AM, Lucas Ferreira Mation
<lucasmation at gmail.com> wrote:
> I created this package,
>
> https://github.com/lucasmation/microdadosBrasil
>
> which we are preparing for Cran submission. The package facilitates
> downloading and reading most of the microdatasets (household surveys,
> Census, etc). For each dataset it:
>
> (a) downloads the data from  the data providers
> (b) "unzip" the necessary files
> (c) imports the data into R.
>
> For  (b), some of the datasets come in .7z and .rar format which ideally
> the package should unzip (or whatever the correct them for uncompacting
> these file types is) so that the underlying .txt or .csv files can be
> imported into R.
>
> Not being able to find a solution within R (R only deals with .zip files),
> we added a Rtools dependency, in order to use Rtools expanded
> unzipping capabilities on the .7z and .rar  files.
>
> Is adding a Rtools dependency a bad practice for an R package? Is it even
> allowed by cran? I mean, it changes requires the installation of a
> standalone software (Rtools), which does not seem very user-friendly.
>
> Is there any alternative for unzipping .rar and .7z files that only depends
> on R packages and works independently of the OS, etc?
>
> If the Rtools is a big problem, I could also revert to our initial strategy
> that did not support .7z and .rar "unzipping", requesting the
user to
> manually unpack those files.
>
> regards
> Lucas
>
>         [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
>
> ______________________________________________
> R-help at r-project.org mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> PLEASE do read the posting guide
http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.

ok, tks

2018-03-29 11:30 GMT-03:00 Bert Gunter <bgunter.4567 at gmail.com>:
> r-package-devel is the right mailing list for your query, not here.
>
>
> Cheers,
> Bert
>
>
> Bert Gunter
>
> "The trouble with having an open mind is that people keep coming along
> and sticking things into it."
> -- Opus (aka Berkeley Breathed in his "Bloom County" comic strip
)
>
>
> On Thu, Mar 29, 2018 at 6:56 AM, Lucas Ferreira Mation
> <lucasmation at gmail.com> wrote:
> > I created this package,
> >
> > https://github.com/lucasmation/microdadosBrasil
> >
> > which we are preparing for Cran submission. The package facilitates
> > downloading and reading most of the microdatasets (household surveys,
> > Census, etc). For each dataset it:
> >
> > (a) downloads the data from  the data providers
> > (b) "unzip" the necessary files
> > (c) imports the data into R.
> >
> > For  (b), some of the datasets come in .7z and .rar format which
ideally
> > the package should unzip (or whatever the correct them for
uncompacting
> > these file types is) so that the underlying .txt or .csv files can be
> > imported into R.
> >
> > Not being able to find a solution within R (R only deals with .zip
> files),
> > we added a Rtools dependency, in order to use Rtools expanded
> > unzipping capabilities on the .7z and .rar  files.
> >
> > Is adding a Rtools dependency a bad practice for an R package? Is it
even
> > allowed by cran? I mean, it changes requires the installation of a
> > standalone software (Rtools), which does not seem very user-friendly.
> >
> > Is there any alternative for unzipping .rar and .7z files that only
> depends
> > on R packages and works independently of the OS, etc?
> >
> > If the Rtools is a big problem, I could also revert to our initial
> strategy
> > that did not support .7z and .rar "unzipping", requesting
the user to
> > manually unpack those files.
> >
> > regards
> > Lucas
> >
> >         [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
> >
> > ______________________________________________
> > R-help at r-project.org mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see
> > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> > PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/
> posting-guide.html
> > and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
>
	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]