Using a static (prebuilt) PDF vignette in R package

cran, r

Solution

With R.rsp (>= 1.19.0) you can include a static PDF 'vignettes/main.pdf' by adding a tiny 'vignettes/main.pdf.asis' text file that contains:

%\VignetteIndexEntry{My amazing package}
%\VignetteEngine{R.rsp::asis}

and make sure to have:

Suggests: R.rsp
VignetteBuilder: R.rsp

in your package's DESCRIPTION file. This also works for static HTML vignettes. This is also explained in one of the R.rsp vignettes.

Problem

What is the proper way, to include a static PDF file as a "vignette" in a CRAN package as of R 3.0? The trick described in this document of using an empty stub `Rnw` does not seem to work in R 3.0. The document suggests that there is now a better way based on `\VignetteEngine{}` but it's not quite clear how this works for static PDF files.

Original source