[R-pkg-team] Bug#1042406: dh-r: throws "Use of uninitialized value $dep_line in substitution" warnings with some packages

[Andreas Tille]

Hi Nilesh,

Am Thu, Jul 27, 2023 at 11:51:42PM +0530 schrieb Nilesh Patra:
> 
> On checking further, it seems to be stemming from the recommends line in
> dh-r code[1]. This is because recommendsinput variable is being directly
> set from desc->{Recommends}, and a check of whether this field is empty
> is *after* the said initialization[3]. This can lead to `recommendsinput`
> being set as `undef` and hence the unintialized errors from debhelper.

That's a pretty sensible explanation for the problem.
 
> The reason that we don't see such problems in for instance
> r-bioc-bsgenome is because it has some values in the testdepends and
> recommendsinput ends up having some value[4].
> 
> I have attached a patch to fix this, please check.

While reading the patch it definitely fixes the uninitialized value.
However, it does not fulfill the intended behaviour to add the
Test-Depends as Recommends.  I'm considering parsing DESCRIPTION
directly to do so.

> ** Please test properly before you merge and upload, do NOT upload
> blindly **

Thanks a lot for the warning.  I'll leave the bug open as a reminder
and will sleep over it for a couple of nights to decide what might be
the best solution for the problem.
 
> PS: Please mention my contribution in d/ch if you take this patch.

Sure. ;-)

Thanks a lot for your contribution

      Andreas.

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