R Observatory: Metrics for sysreqr version 0.1.0

Balamuta, James Joseph

doi:10.5281/zenodo.21843040

sysreqr

0.1.0Package record

Preflight Checks for 'R' Package System Requirements

0packages depend

789downloads / year

83.0%test coverage

13/13flavors OK

Overview

About

Maintained by Ahmad Sofi-MahmudiCRAN page ↗GitHub ↗Issues ↗

Helps users on 'Linux' (and, where applicable, 'macOS') find the system packages they need before installing 'R' packages from source. Queries maintained system requirement sources, reports missing system packages, and generates installation commands, 'Dockerfile' snippets, 'GitHub Actions' steps, administrator request templates, and diagnostic reports from failed installation logs.

Changes in 0.1.0

First public release.

Preflight checks

check_packages() resolves the system packages an R package needs on a given Linux platform. Four backends are available: "auto" (default), "bundled", "ppm", and "pak".
check_library() audits installed packages in an R library path.
check_project() and detect_project_packages() scan a project directory, preferring renv.lock, then DESCRIPTION, then source files.

Platform handling

detect_platform() reads /etc/os-release on Linux, sw_vers on macOS, and parses fixture files for tests.
detect_package_manager() returns the package manager for a platform (apt, dnf, yum, zypper, apk, brew).

Show all changes in 0.1.0Hide the rest of the changes in 0.1.0

resolve_platform() accepts NULL, an existing platform object, <distro>-<version> shorthand, or a codename alias (jammy, noble, resolute, bookworm, trixie).

Commands and outputs

install_command() generates platform-appropriate install commands.
dockerfile() and write_dockerfile_snippet() produce Dockerfile snippets.
github_actions() (alias gha()) produces a GitHub Actions YAML step.
admin_request() drafts a plain-text request for system administrators.
write_install_script() writes a POSIX shell script.
write_report() and write_json() persist a plan to disk.
as_install_plan() returns a structured list suitable for downstream tooling.

Diagnostics

diagnose_log() (alias diagnose_install_log()) matches common compiler and linker error patterns and resolves failed package names back to system requirements.
check_error() is a convenience wrapper that reads geterrmessage().
diagnose_failed_packages() resolves a known list of failed R packages.

Posit Package Manager

ppm_platforms(), check_ppm(), ppm_repo(), ppm_sysreqs(), and use_ppm() integrate with the Posit Package Manager API and binary repository URLs.

Setup guidance

setup_advice() produces a practical, beginner-friendly Linux setup checklist with optional shell-script output.
explain() prints a friendly per-package explanation.

Documentation

Five HTML vignettes: preflight setup, diagnosing failures, GNU/Linux fundamentals (for newcomers to Linux), Docker and CI workflows, and an FAQ.
Every exported function has a runnable example.
Reference index grouped by topic on the pkgdown site.

Correctness and portability

Bundled system-package names are now portable across Debian and Ubuntu: default-libmysqlclient-dev (was libmysqlclient-dev, which does not exist on Debian), libgsl-dev (was libgsl0-dev), and libfreetype-dev (was libfreetype6-dev).
detect_project_packages() now detects requireNamespace() calls and ignores package names that appear only in line comments.
setup_advice() generates Debian repository setup using the modern deb822 Signed-By keyring format (matching CRAN's current Debian instructions), drops a no-op Fedora repoquery line, and presents the Fedora COPR step as optional.
Added AlmaLinux 9 and 10 as known platforms so ppm_repo() and check_ppm() work for them.
The internal JSON parser now rejects unescaped control characters, per the JSON specification.

Design notes

sysreqr has **zero required dependencies**: no Imports, no Depends beyond base R. The Suggests field lists testthat, knitr, rmarkdown, and withr, used only for tests and vignette building; none of them are loaded at run time.
Optional live backends can use Posit Package Manager (over HTTPS) and pak::pkg_sysreqs(), both of which are detected at run time and never required.
The package ships a static bundled database of system requirements for common CRAN packages. The database is refreshed with each release. Use backend = "ppm" or backend = "pak" when newer live metadata is needed.

From NEWS.md in the release

Install

R (CRAN)pak (dev)Ubuntu (r2u)Fedora (COPR)openSUSE (OBS)

install.packages("sysreqr", repos = "https://cloud.r-project.org/")

Installs the current CRAN release. Prebuilt binaries on Windows and macOS.

if (!requireNamespace("pak", quietly = TRUE))
  install.packages("pak", repos = "https://cloud.r-project.org/")
pak::pak("choxos/sysreqR")

Development version from choxos/sysreqR. Installs pak first if it is not already available.

Release

# enable cranapt (r2u) if it is not already set up, then install
grep -rqs r2u.stat.illinois.edu /etc/apt/sources.list /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ \
  || curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/eddelbuettel/r2u/master/inst/scripts/add_cranapt_noble.sh | sudo bash
sudo apt install -y r-cran-sysreqr

Fast Ubuntu binaries via r2u (no compilation). The cranapt setup runs once and is skipped when it is already enabled. We list this channel from recorded r2u download activity rather than from a live index of the repository, so treat it as last known rather than guaranteed.

bspm (used by r2u) also needs make: sudo apt install make

# enable the iucar/cran COPR if it is not already present, then install
ls /etc/yum.repos.d/*iucar*cran*.repo >/dev/null 2>&1 \
  || sudo dnf copr enable -y iucar/cran
sudo dnf install -y R-CRAN-sysreqr

RPMs from the iucar/cran COPR, rebuilt from CRAN.

For install.packages() integration in R, also: sudo dnf install R-CoprManager

# add the autoCRAN OBS repo (Tumbleweed) if it is missing, then install
zypper -q lr | grep -qi autoCRAN \
  || sudo zypper addrepo https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/devel:/languages:/R:/autoCRAN/openSUSE_Tumbleweed/devel:languages:R:autoCRAN.repo
sudo zypper install -y R-sysreqr

RPMs auto-built from CRAN on openSUSE OBS (Tumbleweed). We list this channel from recorded autoCRAN download activity rather than from a live index of the repository, so treat it as last known rather than guaranteed.

Health

CRAN checks

13OK

CRAN check page ↗

Slowest check: 1.5 min · r-oldrel-windows-x86_64

Status changes

OK13 OK2026-08-04
NOTE12 OK, 1 NOTE2026-08-01
OK7 OK2026-06-12

Advisories

none known

How this is measured·How advisories are found

Documentation

In release 0.1.0

READMEYes · 682 wordsVignettesYes · 5 · dynamicNEWSYes · 67% structured · mentions 0.1.0Citation fileYes · computed when R runs it

Help pages: 31 (1 internal)includes a package overview page
Examples that run: 89%25 run in a plain check · 3 only when donttest examples are enabled (R CMD check --as-cran)
Exported functions with examples: 100%
Documented parameters: 100%
Return-value docs: 100%
Help pages citing references: 0%

Vignettes (5)

How these are measured

Downloads

789

CRAN downloads in the past year

Rank #24,962 · ~2/day · ~66/mo

Releases R versions

Daily download trend is not available in this view yet.

16830 days

44990 days

7891 year

Compare downloads with other packages →

Also on18 r2u1 autocran

How downloads are counted

Repository

choxos/sysreqr ↗Account: choxos

3Stars

0Forks

0Open issues

0Open PRs

1Releases

17Commits

1Commit identities

rr-packagelinuxgnu-linux

License file reads as GPL-3.0 · 17 commits · Last activity 2026-09-16 · 0% stars, 30d · Default branch at 0.2.0, ahead of CRAN 0.1.0 (checked 2026-10-21) · Discussions: 1 post

Responsiveness

How these are sampled

PRs merged (all time): 100%
Median days to close, 50 most recently updated closed issues: 0
Median days to close, 50 most recently updated closed PRs: 96

Stars over time

2026-05-27 · 12026-07-07 · 3

How these are measured

PracticesBeta

15 development-tooling and community-health practices detected across 7 families in the upstream repository

Checks run against github.com/choxos/sysreqr on 2026-10-21.

Continuous integration (2)

GitHub ActionsR CMD check workflow

The R CMD check workflow runs on Linux, macOS and Windows, and on R-devel

Governance and community (5)

Code of conductContributing guideIssue templatesPR templateSecurity policy

Docs source (3)

pkgdown

GitHub Pages site last deployed 2026-09-16 · The repository has a site deploy workflow

Coverage (1)

Coverage reporting

Show all practicesHide 3 practices

Reproducibility and dev environment (1)

data-raw/

CRAN release process (1)

cran-comments.md

Lint, format, editor (2)

lintrLint workflow

How this is detected·Detection ruleset v4 (2026-10-20)

Dependencies

Declared dependencies

4 external dependencies (excludes base and recommended)

Installing sysreqr adds no packages beyond those that come with R.

Depends (1)

R >= 4.1

Imports (0)

none

LinkingTo (0)

none

Suggests (4)

knitr rmarkdown testthat withr

Enhances (0)

none

Dependency license breakdown →

Reverse dependencies

0direct

0indirect

Nothing depends on this yet.

How these are counted

Code & Tests

People & History

People (1)

Ahmad Sofi-Mahmudi

Author, Maintainer since 0.1.0 (2026)

Releases (1)

0.1.0Latest
record
2026-06-11 · current release
R
R 4.6.0 released · 2026-04-24

Package metadata

First published: 2026-06-11
Total releases: 1 / 1 yrs
License: GPL-3 OSI
Minimum R: ≥ 4.1
Download size: 208 KB

Cite

Cite this package

Run in R for the authors' preferred citation:

citation("sysreqr")

The package provides a citation file that builds its entry when R runs it. Run citation() to see it.

Cite the R Observatory

For a number measured here: a download total, a coverage figure, an archival date.

Format

APA

Balamuta, J. J. (2026). R Observatory: Metrics for sysreqr version 0.1.0 [Data set]. HJJB, LLC. Data release v2026-10-25. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21843040

From data release v2026-10-25, which the citation names so these numbers can be found later. More on citing and the projects behind them.

Report a problem with this page →