Error Uploading "actuar" Package – PackageValidationException ("empty.author")

[VincentGuyader]

Hello,

I am encountering an issue when attempting to upload the "actuar" package using rdepot. The upload process fails and generates the following error message in the logs:

oa-rdepot-backend   | 2025-03-01 20:42:22.709 131524 [http-nio-8080-exec-4]  WARN traceId=071e1056-d119-4157-8633-216fa16190f0 o.h.e.i.StatefulPersistenceContext : HHH000179: Narrowing proxy to class eu.openanalytics.rdepot.r.entities.RRepository - this operation breaks ==
oa-rdepot-backend   | 2025-03-01 20:43:12.107 180922 [http-nio-8080-exec-9] ERROR traceId=1fd28fc9-0bfd-43b6-a468-d95fc8763ff4 e.o.r.b.s.u.DefaultPackageUploadStrategy : "empty.author"
oa-rdepot-backend   | eu.openanalytics.rdepot.base.validation.exceptions.PackageValidationException: "empty.author"

It appears that the issue is related to the absence of the "author" field in the package metadata, which triggers a PackageValidationException with the message "empty.author".

I was able to reproduce the issue by uploading the package directly from the URL below:

• actuar_3.3-5.tar.gz

Additionally, when attempting to sync using a more general CRAN mirror, the "actuar" package causes the entire synchronization process to fail. This suggests that it might be beneficial to implement a try-catch (or similar) mechanism during multiple package imports to prevent a single problematic package from stopping the entire process.

Best regards,

[jvanmalder]

Hi Vincent,

We were able to reproduce the issue with the actuar package and are working on a fix, which will be released in the next version of RDepot.
The issue here in particular, was the "Classification/MSC-2010" property in the DESCRIPTION file, since our properties parser didn't expect any digits in the names of the properties whereas the documentation on R DESCRIPTION files allows any ASCII character (so digits should be allowed).

Thank you for your suggestion to implement a try-catch mechanism during synchronization of mirrored packages, we will be looking into this.

We will keep you updated on the progress here.

Kind regards,
Jonas

[jvanmalder]

Hi Vincent,

We released RDepot v2.5.2 today, which should fix the issue you were having when uploading the actuar package.
The enhancement request will be part of a later release. Will keep you updated here on that.

Kind regards,
Jonas

[VincentGuyader]

thanks a lot.
actuar is now OK, but the same error appear for alkahest and anion

oa-rdepot-backend   | 2025-03-18 07:00:15.207 51905128 [ThreadPoolTaskExecutor-1] ERROR traceId= e.o.r.r.m.CranMirrorSynchronizer : eu.openanalytics.rdepot.base.strategy.exceptions.FatalStrategyFailure: strategy.failure: "empty.author"
oa-rdepot-backend   | eu.openanalytics.rdepot.base.strategy.exceptions.FatalStrategyFailure: strategy.failure: "empty.author"

kind Regards

[jvanmalder]

I see, I found the alkahest package on CRAN and saw it has property names in its DESCRIPTION file that contain . symbols, which is causing the empty author issue (similar to the digits in the property names of actuar).
We'll create a bug fix for this as part of the next release.
I couldn't find the anion package on CRAN, did you by any chance mean the aion package?
If not, could you point me towards the anion package or post its DESCRIPTION file here if possible?

Thanks!

[VincentGuyader]

yes it was the aion package :)

Regards

[jvanmalder]

Hi Vincent,

RDepot v2.6.0 was released today, which should fix the issue you were having with the alkahest and aion R packages.
Please let me know if you encounter any other issues. Thanks!

Kind regards,
Jonas