Reclaiming old R package

Question

In early 2013, I created an R package with a single function for model evaluation. I did this partly as a learning experience, and I have since then almost forgotten about the package. I recently received a question about the package and would now like to update it.

My problem: I have since I created the package changed my last name and hence also my e-mail address. I no longer have access to my old address, and this is the e-mail address that exists in the DESCRIPTION. My old and new e-mail addresses share the same domain, so they are very similar.

My question: How do I go about updating the package and the maintainer in this situation? Can I just resubmit the package, change the name/e-mail and describe the situation in the accompanying comment?

Answer 1

This is a question for CRAN that you can raise before or during package submission. The relevant parts of CRAN Repository Policy are:

• If for some reason the submission has to be made by someone else (for example, a co-author) this needs to be explained, and the designated maintainer will need to confirm the submission.
• Explain any change in the maintainer’s email address and if possible send confirmation from the previous address (by a separate email to [email protected]) or explain why it is not possible.

My advice would be to email CRAN directly about the issue and describe your plan to submit a new version with a new maintainer email address. (I suspect they will say this is fine if they receive no reply after some amount of time from the original email address.)