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Suggestion: Add DESCRIPTION 'Date' to R CMD check log header

4 messages · Henrik Bengtsson, Martin Maechler, Kurt Hornik +1 more

Original
Henrik Bengtsson
# 
Hi,

in R CMD check, the version of the package being checked is reported, e.g.

Thu Sep  9 05:02:30 2010: Checking package R.utils (SVN revision 399) ...
* using log directory ?/srv/R/R.check/R-devel/PKGS/R.utils.Rcheck?
* using R version 2.12.0 Under development (unstable) (2010-09-07 r52876)
* using platform: x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu (64-bit)
* using session charset: UTF-8
* checking for file ?R.utils/DESCRIPTION? ... OK
* this is package ?R.utils? version ?1.5.2?
...

I'd like to request/suggest that the 'Date' in the DESCRIPTION file is
also added, e.g.

* this is package ?R.utils? version ?1.5.2? ('2010-09-14')


WHY?
This would be particular useful when you work toward sites like
R-forge and Bioconductor when you may commit your day's work on
package when you update the 'Date' but you do not really want to
update the 'Version' because you're going to put in more work
tomorrow.  With the 'Date' information you'll be able to see what
"version" of your updates have been checked by the servers.  I
understand that this may be an odd process to follow even for devel
branches and you may argue that you should always bump the version
number whenever you do an SVN commit (e.g. '1.5.2.1' for temporary
commits).  Either way, I find it useful to see the date as well.

Thxs

Henrik
Martin Maechler
# 
Hi Henrik
HB> Hi,
    HB> in R CMD check, the version of the package being checked is reported, e.g.

    HB> Thu Sep  9 05:02:30 2010: Checking package R.utils (SVN revision 399) ...
    HB> * using log directory ?/srv/R/R.check/R-devel/PKGS/R.utils.Rcheck?
    HB> * using R version 2.12.0 Under development (unstable) (2010-09-07 r52876)
    HB> * using platform: x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu (64-bit)
    HB> * using session charset: UTF-8
    HB> * checking for file ?R.utils/DESCRIPTION? ... OK
    HB> * this is package ?R.utils? version ?1.5.2?
    HB> ...

    HB> I'd like to request/suggest that the 'Date' in the DESCRIPTION file is
    HB> also added, e.g.

    HB> * this is package ?R.utils? version ?1.5.2? ('2010-09-14')


    HB> WHY?
    HB> This would be particular useful when you work toward sites like
    HB> R-forge and Bioconductor when you may commit your day's work on
    HB> package when you update the 'Date' but you do not really want to
    HB> update the 'Version' because you're going to put in more work
    HB> tomorrow.  With the 'Date' information you'll be able to see what
    HB> "version" of your updates have been checked by the servers.  I
    HB> understand that this may be an odd process to follow even for devel
    HB> branches and you may argue that you should always bump the version
    HB> number whenever you do an SVN commit (e.g. '1.5.2.1' for temporary
    HB> commits).  Either way, I find it useful to see the date as well.

I agree that this is useful.
Of course, for all those cases, where there's no  "Date:",
nothing (i.e. no "()") should be written.

If you (or someone) provide patches against  R-devel
( https://svn.r-project.org/R/trunk/ )
and they pass 'make check-all', I'd add this feature.

Martin
Kurt Hornik
# 
HB> Hi,
HB> in R CMD check, the version of the package being checked is reported, e.g.

HB> Thu Sep  9 05:02:30 2010: Checking package R.utils (SVN revision 399) ...
HB> * using log directory ?/srv/R/R.check/R-devel/PKGS/R.utils.Rcheck?
HB> * using R version 2.12.0 Under development (unstable) (2010-09-07 r52876)
HB> * using platform: x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu (64-bit)
HB> * using session charset: UTF-8
HB> * checking for file ?R.utils/DESCRIPTION? ... OK
HB> * this is package ?R.utils? version ?1.5.2?
HB> ...

HB> I'd like to request/suggest that the 'Date' in the DESCRIPTION file is
HB> also added, e.g.

HB> * this is package ?R.utils? version ?1.5.2? ('2010-09-14')


HB> WHY?
HB> This would be particular useful when you work toward sites like
HB> R-forge and Bioconductor when you may commit your day's work on
HB> package when you update the 'Date' but you do not really want to
HB> update the 'Version' because you're going to put in more work
HB> tomorrow.  With the 'Date' information you'll be able to see what
HB> "version" of your updates have been checked by the servers.  I
HB> understand that this may be an odd process to follow even for devel
HB> branches and you may argue that you should always bump the version
HB> number whenever you do an SVN commit (e.g. '1.5.2.1' for temporary
HB> commits).  Either way, I find it useful to see the date as well.
But pls not against the Date field by default:

R-Forge packages record their revision in their package metadata.

CRAN packages record Date/Publication in their metadata.

Not sure about BioC ...

-k
Hervé Pagès
#
On 09/15/2010 01:55 AM, Kurt Hornik wrote:
For BioC packages, I look at the svn revision number displayed
on the build/check report so I know exactly which version of my
package was built/checked:

   http://bioconductor.org/checkResults/2.7/bioc-LATEST/

But I can see Henrik's point to not depend on what a particular
build system does and to have this kind of feature incorporated
in 'R CMD check' itself.

Cheers,
H.