usethis (version 1.6.1)

use_description: Create or modify a DESCRIPTION file

Description

use_description() creates a DESCRIPTION file. Although mostly associated with R packages, a DESCRIPTION file can also be used to declare dependencies for a non-package projects. Within such a project, devtools::install_deps() can then be used to install all the required packages. Note that, by default, use_decription() checks for a CRAN-compliant package name. You can turn this off with check_name = FALSE.

usethis consults the following sources, in this order, to set DESCRIPTION fields:

• fields argument of create_package() or use_description().

• getOption("usethis.description") or getOption("devtools.desc"). The devtools option is consulted only for backwards compatibility and it's recommended to switch to an option named "usethis.description".

• Defaults built into usethis.

The fields discovered via options or the usethis package can be viewed with use_description_defaults().

If you create a lot of packages, consider storing personalized defaults as a named list in an option named "usethis.description". Here's an example of code to include in .Rprofile:

options(
  usethis.description = list(
    `Authors@R` = 'person("Jane", "Doe", email = "[e-mail]", role = c("aut", "cre"),
                          comment = c(ORCID = "YOUR-ORCID-ID"))',
    License = "MIT + file LICENSE",
    Language =  "es"
  )
)

Usage

use_description(fields = list(), check_name = TRUE, roxygen = TRUE)
use_description_defaults(package = NULL, roxygen = TRUE, fields = list())

Arguments

fields

A named list of fields to add to DESCRIPTION, potentially overriding default values. See use_description() for how you can set personalized defaults using package options

check_name

Whether to check if the name is valid for CRAN and throw an error if not

roxygen

If TRUE, sets RoxygenNote to current roxygen2 version.

package

Package name

See Also

The description chapter of R Packages.

Examples

# NOT RUN {
use_description()

use_description(fields = list(Language = "es"))

use_description_defaults()
# }