R CMD check fails at package dependencies check on Fedora Core 5, works on other systems

Here is another thing that might help work out what is happening.  If I 
use --no-install, ade4 actually fails as well, in the same way as zipfR.

  [Desktop]$ R CMD check --no-install ade4
  * checking for working latex ... OK
  * using log directory '/home/rak776/Desktop/ade4.Rcheck'
  * using Version 2.3.1 (2006-06-01)
  * checking for file 'ade4/DESCRIPTION' ... OK
  * this is package 'ade4' version '1.4-1'
  * checking if this is a source package ... OK
  * checking package directory ... OK
  * checking for portable file names ... OK
  * checking for sufficient/correct file permissions ... OK
  * checking DESCRIPTION meta-information ... ERROR

  [Desktop]$ R CMD check --no-install zipfR
  * checking for working latex ... OK
  * using log directory '/home/rak776/Desktop/zipfR.Rcheck'
  * using Version 2.3.1 (2006-06-01)
  * checking for file 'zipfR/DESCRIPTION' ... OK
  * checking extension type ... Package
  * this is package 'zipfR' version '0.6-0'
  * checking if this is a source package ... OK
  * checking package directory ... OK
  * checking for portable file names ... OK
  * checking for sufficient/correct file permissions ... OK
  * checking DESCRIPTION meta-information ... ERROR

<snip>

Robert,

I tried the process last night (my time) using the initial instructions
on my FC5 system with:

$ R --version
R version 2.3.1 Patched (2006-08-06 r38829)
Copyright (C) 2006 R Development Core Team


I could not replicate the problem.

However, this morning, with your additional communication:

$ R CMD check --no-install zipfR_0.6-0.tar.gz
* checking for working latex ... OK
* using log directory '/home/marcs/Downloads/zipfR.Rcheck'
* using Version 2.3.1 Patched (2006-08-06 r38829)
* checking for file 'zipfR/DESCRIPTION' ... OK
* checking extension type ... Package
* this is package 'zipfR' version '0.6-0'
* checking if this is a source package ... OK
* checking package directory ... OK
* checking for portable file names ... OK
* checking for sufficient/correct file permissions ... OK
* checking DESCRIPTION meta-information ... OK
* checking top-level files ... OK
* checking index information ... OK
* checking package subdirectories ... OK
* checking R files for syntax errors ... OK
* checking R files for library.dynam ... OK
* checking S3 generic/method consistency ... OK
* checking replacement functions ... OK
* checking foreign function calls ... OK
* checking Rd files ... OK
* checking Rd cross-references ... WARNING
Warning in grep(pattern, x, ignore.case, extended, value, fixed,
useBytes) :
         input string 70 is invalid in this locale
* checking for missing documentation entries ... WARNING
Warning in grep(pattern, x, ignore.case, extended, value, fixed,
useBytes) :
         input string 70 is invalid in this locale
All user-level objects in a package should have documentation entries.
See chapter 'Writing R documentation files' in manual 'Writing R
Extensions'.
* checking for code/documentation mismatches ... OK
* checking Rd \usage sections ... OK
* checking DVI version of manual ... OK

WARNING: There were 2 warnings, see
  /home/marcs/Downloads/zipfR.Rcheck/00check.log
for details



So I am wondering if this raises the possibility of a locale issue on
your FC5 system resulting in a problem reading DESCRIPTION files?  It
may be totally unrelated, but one never knows I suppose. Mine is:

$ locale
LANG=en_US.UTF-8
LC_CTYPE="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_NUMERIC="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_TIME="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_COLLATE="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_MONETARY="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_MESSAGES="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_PAPER="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_NAME="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_ADDRESS="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_TELEPHONE="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_MEASUREMENT="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_IDENTIFICATION="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_ALL=


HTH,

Marc Schwartz