What should I actually be doing in response to this warning? "Please note that rgdal will be retired by the end of 2023"

Question

I keep noticing this message when I load the rgdal package:

"Please note that rgdal will be retired by the end of 2023, plan transition to sf/stars/terra functions using GDAL and PROJ at your earliest convenience."

I don't know what this means. Does this mean that there are some sf/stars/terra functions that use rgdal and others don't? Or does this mean that sf/stars/terra don't use rgdal at all, and that I should use these packages instead of other packages that do rely on rgdal?

What are common packages that do rely on rgdal that will be affected?

Answer 1

As a complement to @Jindra Lacko's answer, I confirm your last hypothesis: sf/stars/terra don't use rgdal at all, and you should use these packages instead of other packages that do rely on rgdal. If you wish, you can find more information through these two links :

• https://rgdal.r-forge.r-project.org/articles/CRS_projections_transformations.html
• https://r-spatial.org/r/2020/03/17/wkt.html

Answer 2

This message means that the maintainer of the package is retiring. He will no longer be in position to give rgdal package the tender loving care that CRAN listing requires. He therefore suggests you migrate your workflows to other tools in an orderly manner.