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r-devel / cran-cookbook

Problem and solution documentation for common CRAN issues
http://contributor.r-project.org/cran-cookbook/
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Authorship of third-party code #45

Open aitap opened 1 month ago

aitap commented 1 month ago

Every now and then, there is a need to directly include third-party code in an R package without a way to link to an external build of it as recommended by the policy. Here's a recent example: R-package-devel thread, eventual CRAN package with lots of cph, ctb co-authors. After a recent change in ?person, all the "natural person" co-authors are automatically considered cph. Do I understand it correctly that the correct way to include third-party code now is as follows?

  1. Try to find a way not to
  2. Locate all co-authors and copyright holders, possibly reading the version control history if the project doesn't provide an official list of authors
  3. Mark "natural person" co-authors as ctb, organisations as cph, ctb
  4. For multiple cph co-authors, specify the ownership details in the comment argument
llrs commented 1 month ago

I think this should be first addressed at r-package-devel as it affects also packages on Bioconductor. Note that there was also some change on how comment is used (not sure what was the intention but saw some commits about it).

aitap commented 1 month ago

My apologies, I had assumed that the presence of a CRAN team member offered a more direct way of clarifying rules. Let's hope that after an R-package-devel discussion we'll be able to make it into a pull request.

llrs commented 1 month ago

There is nothing to apology, I might be wrong. The CRAN team is divided in groups, and I don't think the CRAN QA group is checking this repository. I think they are more likely to see this on the mailing list.

jasdumas commented 1 month ago

Hi @aitap, Thanks for your question. I'm going to be writing up a somewhat relevant recipe issue: Description file: Using Authors@R soon and I'll take some time to think about how this question can be answered and included as a callout note at least for reference.

aitap commented 1 month ago

Thank you! I see the policy for organisations is being updated as well.

Baltmann01 commented 1 month ago

Small comment from my side as CRAN newbie submission team member: Your list looks like a great summary. I can only tell you what I look for in packages with third-party code. And packages following your list would probably pass my review (at least regarding this issue).