Winbuilder error "Check process probably crashed or hung up for 20 minutes ... killed"

[njtierney]

Hi Folks!

When using devtools::check_win_devel() or devtools::check_win_release() on naniar, I get the following logfile from winbuilder:

* using log directory 'd:/RCompile/CRANguest/R-release/naniar.Rcheck'
* using R version 4.0.2 (2020-06-22)
* using platform: x86_64-w64-mingw32 (64-bit)
* using session charset: ISO8859-1
* checking for file 'naniar/DESCRIPTION' ... OK
* checking extension type ... Package
* this is package 'naniar' version '0.5.3'
* package encoding: UTF-8
* checking CRAN incoming feasibility ... ERROR
Check process probably crashed or hung up for 20 minutes ... killed
Most likely this happened in the example checks (?),
if not, ignore the following last lines of example output:

======== End of example output (where/before crash/hang up occured ?) ========

I had previously thought this was a problem to do with CRAN being closed last week, but apparently this is not the case, and it should have been working. I cannot find any details on CRAN for this, but it passes build on R HUB for windows, and it passes build with no warnings, errors, or notes for me on Mac OSX.

Just wondering if anyone has thoughts on this? I will probably cross post to R devel mailing list as well

[jimhester]

My guess is a resource is exhausted and the check process is hanging waiting for it to become available, but it never does.

From running the naniar examples they include a large number of plots, so my guess is the check process is hanging trying to open or close a device.

I am not sure if this is due to a configuration issue on win-builder, or if there is something you should do in your package to address it.

[njtierney]

Thanks for taking a look, Jim! Really appreciate it. This has been a bit of a head scratcher for me so I appreciate your insight. That makes sense to me regarding the resource being exhausted. I try to include lots of plots in my examples so users have a lot to go off, but I'm somewhat reluctant to reduce the examples unless I really need to, but I guess that wouldn't be that bad, all the content is captured in the vignettes anyway so maybe that would be more direct.

I've emailed CRAN and R Package Devel about this, I'll post here if I have any updates.

Thanks again, Jim!

[sebsfox]

Apologies - it wasn't working a few days ago but it works now. I've not changed anything my end...

[njtierney]

OK so to close the loop on this - there were issues with winbuilder, but after some discussion with Uwe and Kurt, they said to submit naniar to CRAN. The submission was a minor bugfix, and went through pretty much straight away.

So for me, despite winbuilder not working, it was working on all other testing services (GH actions, RHUB), so my 2 cents is that if it works there, and there are some issues with winbuilder, send an email to R package Devel, and if you don't hear anything, just submit to CRAN.

Happy travels!