Covers: Chapters 22 and 23 - Build, check, BiocCheck, and conclusion

Build, Check, and BiocCheck

Run all three tools successfully before submission. Build and check against the current Bioconductor devel version, using the matching R version (Bioconductor releases are tied to specific R versions).

Exact commands

Build the source tarball first, then check the tarball it produces:

R CMD build MyPackage
R CMD check MyPackage_0.99.0.tar.gz

Then run BiocCheck. For a git clone / working directory:

BiocCheck::BiocCheckGitClone()

For a new-package submission (runs the stricter new-package rules):

BiocCheck::BiocCheck('new-package' = TRUE)

BiocCheck can also be run on the built tarball. During development, devtools::check() is a convenient wrapper around R CMD build/check.

Pass/fail gate

• BiocCheck is the submission gate. The package MUST pass with no ERRORs and no WARNINGs. Address NOTEs where possible; unresolved notes may be questioned in review.
• R CMD build and R CMD check must complete without ERROR.
• New packages should carry version 0.99.x in DESCRIPTION.

What BiocCheck enforces (selection)

• Bioconductor coding style, dependency and NAMESPACE correctness.
• Presence of a vignette, runnable examples, and unit tests. The example check is quantitative and is an ERROR below 80% - see the Examples section of documentation.md for the exact rule and for why \dontrun makes it worse rather than better.
• Correct DESCRIPTION fields including valid biocViews.
• No forbidden files tracked in git (see gitignore chapter).
• Function length, line length, and other style thresholds.

CI

• GitHub Actions workflows can mimic the submission environment; see the R-Universe Bioconductor integration docs.

Submission (conclusion)

• All contributions undergo formal peer review.
• Submit through the official GitHub package submission repository/tracker.
• See “How to Build a Bioconductor Package with RStudio” for a walkthrough.
• Once build, check, and BiocCheck are clean, the package is ready to submit.

Source: Build, check and BiocCheck and Conclusion Fetched 2026-08-14 from contributions.bioconductor.org (Bioconductor devel guide).