CRAN 0.2.4 release checklist

[colearendt]

• Create branch labelled v[version]-rc, for example, v1.5.2-rc (the "rc" stands for "Release Candidate").
• Change the DESCRIPTION and NEWS on this branch to change the version number to the desired version for CRAN, e.g. from 1.5.1.9008 to 1.5.2.
• Commit and push to the RC branch.
• Clean your package directory to remove any extraneous files, including ones that are git-ignored. (Warning, this will delete any unsaved buffers in RStudio! Also, be sure to close RStudio before taking this step!) git clean -xdf .
  • NOTE: git clean -xdn . provides a "dry-run" list of what will be done / removed
• Build your package. I personally do it from the Mac command line like this:

PATH=$PATH:/Applications/RStudio.app/Contents/MacOS/pandoc R CMD build [pkgdir]

• Do a sanity check by installing/testing the built package.
• Perform revdep check using https://github.com/r-lib/revdepcheck, if this is not the initial CRAN release.
• Run PATH=$PATH:/Applications/RStudio.app/Contents/MacOS/pandoc R CMD check --as-cran pkg_version.tar.gz both locally and on win-builder. You can also use https://r-hub.github.io/rhub/.
• I don't know how much it matters but I have this file as my ~/.R/Makevars:

CFLAGS +=              -Wall -pipe -pedantic -std=gnu99 -g -O0
CXXFLAGS +=            -Wall -pipe -Wno-unused -pedantic -g -O0
CXX11FLAGS +=            -Wall -pipe -Wno-unused -pedantic -g -O0

• Read every bullet point in the CRAN Policies document if this is the first release of the package. I usually print it out and check off the items one by one.
• Submit to CRAN via their online form.
• If there are R CMD check warnings that are unavoidable, make sure to explain them in the comments.
• If rejected, make changes on the RC branch and bump the fourth (patch) version component, i.e. 1.5.2.1.
• When accepted, tag the RC branch with a v1.5.2.1 tag (or whatever version you finally ended up getting accepted), and push the tag to origin.
• Merge RC into master.
• On master, change the package version to 1.5.2.9000.