devtools DESCRIPTION file

devtools, package, r

Solution

Unfortunately you need:

options(devtools.desc.author="'First Last <first.last@example.com> [aut, cre]'")

because the contents of `Authors@R` must be a valid R expression.

Or using the `person` function from the `utils` package:

authors_at_r <- paste0(
  "'", 
  person(
    "First", 
    "Last", 
    email = "first.last@example.com", 
    role  = c("aut", "cre")), 
  "'"
)
options(devtools.desc.author=authors)

Problem

I am trying to create a package with devtools. I want to set a few options so that the DESCRIPTION file is auto-populated. I can't seem to get it right. This is a problem that can be easily fixed manually, I think, but I want this to work in code. Worried the error will affect me later. Any suggestions on appropriate syntax? I have my functions in a folder called "R". I set my working directory to the parent folder for R. Then: ``` library(devtools) install_github("devtools") options(devtools.desc.author="First Last <first.last@example.com> [aut, cre]") options(devtools.desc.license="GPL-3") load_all() ``` This outputs this: ``` No DESCRIPTION found. Creating default: Package: mypackage Title: Description: Version: 0.1 Authors@R: First Last <first.last@example.com> [aut, cre] Depends: R (>= 3.0.1) License: GPL-3 LazyData: true Loading mypackage Invalid DESCRIPTION: Malformed Authors@R field: <text>:1:7: unexpected symbol 1: First Last ^ Required fields missing: Author Maintainer See the information on DESCRIPTION files in section 'Creating R packages' of the 'Writing R Extensions' manual. ``` I am aware that in some way the Authors@R field can/is in some way replacing the Maintainer field, but wondering how to get this to stop throwing errors, and what they mean. Thanks in advance!

Original source