R package guidelines
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This document covers standards and guidelines on writing PKGBUILDs for R packages. Most information can be obtained by looking at the package's DESCRIPTION file. You can get most of this from inside R by running tools::CRAN_package_db(). You could also visit CRAN, Bioconductor link1, and Bioconductor link2 for all the R packages' information.
Package naming
Packages should be named r-pkgname, where pkgname is taken from the Package field from the DESCRIPTION file.
The package name should be lowercase.
Package Version
Take it from the Version field. R allows packages to have colons and hyphens in their version, this is disallowed in PKGBUILDs. Convert these to a period or underscore.
Arch
See PKGBUILD#arch. If the package's CRAN webpage has NeedsCompilation: yes it is likely architecture-specific. Otherwise, it is likely not.
Dependencies
R packages listed in Depends, Imports, or the LinkingTo fields in a package's DESCRIPTION file should be listed under depends.
R packages listed in Suggests should be listed as optdepends.
Some packages require external tools, these are listed under SystemRequirements.
gcc-fortran is needed as depends for some packages but is not always listed in the DESCRIPTION file.
Source
All R packages available on CRAN are available at the website https://cran.r-project.org/src/contrib/cranname_cranversion.tar.gz where cranname is the name of the package on CRAN and cranversion the cran version.
R packages avalable on Bioconductor are available at the website https://bioconductor.org/packages/release/bioc/src/contrib/bcname_bcname.tar.gz or https://bioconductor.org/packages/release/data/annotation/src/contrib/bcname_bcname.tar.gz where bcname is the name of the package on Bioconductor and bcver the version.
Build and Package
R has built-in support for building packages. Here are two templates of PKGBUILDs for two repositories: CRAN and Bioconductor.
CRAN
_cranname=
_cranver=
pkgname=r-${_cranname,,}
pkgver=${_cranver//[:-]/.}
pkgrel=1
pkgdesc=""
arch=()
url="https://cran.r-project.org/package=${_cranname}"
license=()
depends=(r)
makedepends=()
optdepends=()
source=("https://cran.r-project.org/src/contrib/${_cranname}_${_cranver}.tar.gz")
sha256sums=()
build() {
R CMD INSTALL ${_cranname}_${_cranver}.tar.gz -l "${srcdir}"
}
package() {
install -dm0755 "${pkgdir}/usr/lib/R/library"
cp -a --no-preserve=ownership "${_cranname}" "${pkgdir}/usr/lib/R/library"
}
Bioconductor
_bcname=
_bcver=
pkgname=r-${_bcname,,}
pkgver=${_bcver//[:-]/.}
pkgrel=1
pkgdesc=""
arch=()
url="https://bioconductor.org/packages/${_bcname}"
license=()
depends=(r)
makedepends=()
optdepends=()
source=("https://bioconductor.org/packages/release/bioc/src/contrib/${_bcname}_${_bcver}.tar.gz")
# or
# source=("https://bioconductor.org/packages/release/data/annotation/src/contrib/${_bcname}_${_bcver}.tar.gz")
sha256sums=()
build() {
R CMD INSTALL ${_bcname}_${_bcver}.tar.gz -l "${srcdir}"
}
package() {
install -dm0755 "${pkgdir}/usr/lib/R/library"
cp -a --no-preserve=ownership "${_bcname}" "${pkgdir}/usr/lib/R/library"
}
Tips and tricks
To quickly check if any of your (or another user) R packages in AUR has become outdated you can use aurrpkgs-gitAUR tool (replace username with desired value):
$ aurrpkgs username
This tool will show you all outdated packages and new available versions for them.