usethis

usethis is a workflow package: it automates repetitive tasks that arise during project setup and development, both for R packages and non-package projects.

Installation

Install the released version of usethis from CRAN:

install.packages("usethis")

Or install the development version from GitHub with:

# install.packages("pak")
pak::pak("r-lib/usethis")

Usage

Most use_*() functions operate on the active project: literally, a directory on your computer. If you’ve just used usethis to create a new package or project, that will be the active project. Otherwise, usethis verifies that current working directory is or is below a valid project directory and that becomes the active project. Use proj_get() or proj_sitrep() to manually query the project and read more in the docs.

A few usethis functions have no strong connections to projects and will expect you to provide a path.

usethis is quite chatty, explaining what it’s doing and assigning you tasks. ✔ indicates something usethis has done for you. ☐ indicates that you’ll need to do some work yourself.

Below is a quick look at how usethis can help to set up a package. But remember, many usethis functions are also applicable to analytical projects that are not packages.

library(usethis)

# Create a new package -------------------------------------------------
path <- file.path(tempdir(), "mypkg")
create_package(path)
#> ✔ Creating '/tmp/Rtmpyt1hd6/mypkg/'.
#> ✔ Setting active project to "/private/tmp/Rtmpyt1hd6/mypkg".
#> ✔ Creating 'R/'.
#> ✔ Writing 'DESCRIPTION'.
#> Package: mypkg
#> Title: What the Package Does (One Line, Title Case)
#> Version: 0.0.0.9000
#> Authors@R (parsed):
#>     * First Last <first.last@example.com> [aut, cre] (YOUR-ORCID-ID)
#> Description: What the package does (one paragraph).
#> License: `use_mit_license()`, `use_gpl3_license()` or friends to pick a
#>     license
#> Encoding: UTF-8
#> Roxygen: list(markdown = TRUE)
#> RoxygenNote: 7.3.2
#> ✔ Writing 'NAMESPACE'.
#> ✔ Setting active project to "<no active project>".
# only needed since this session isn't interactive
proj_activate(path)
#> ✔ Setting active project to "/private/tmp/Rtmpyt1hd6/mypkg".
#> ✔ Changing working directory to '/tmp/Rtmpyt1hd6/mypkg/'

# Modify the description ----------------------------------------------
use_mit_license("My Name")
#> ✔ Adding "MIT + file LICENSE" to 'License'.
#> ✔ Writing 'LICENSE'.
#> ✔ Writing 'LICENSE.md'.
#> ✔ Adding "^LICENSE\\.md$" to '.Rbuildignore'.

use_package("ggplot2", "Suggests")
#> ✔ Adding ggplot2 to 'Suggests' field in DESCRIPTION.
#> ☐ Use `requireNamespace("ggplot2", quietly = TRUE)` to test if ggplot2 is
#>   installed.
#> ☐ Then directly refer to functions with `ggplot2::fun()`.

# Set up other files -------------------------------------------------
use_readme_md()
#> ✔ Writing 'README.md'.
#> ☐ Update 'README.md' to include installation instructions.

use_news_md()
#> ✔ Writing 'NEWS.md'.

use_test("my-test")
#> ✔ Adding testthat to 'Suggests' field in DESCRIPTION.
#> ✔ Adding "3" to 'Config/testthat/edition'.
#> ✔ Creating 'tests/testthat/'.
#> ✔ Writing 'tests/testthat.R'.
#> ✔ Writing 'tests/testthat/test-my-test.R'.
#> ☐ Edit 'tests/testthat/test-my-test.R'.

x <- 1
y <- 2
use_data(x, y)
#> ✔ Adding R to 'Depends' field in DESCRIPTION.
#> ✔ Creating 'data/'.
#> ✔ Setting 'LazyData' to "true" in 'DESCRIPTION'.
#> ✔ Saving "x" and "y" to "data/x.rda" and "data/y.rda".
#> ☐ Document your data (see <https://r-pkgs.org/data.html>).

# Use git ------------------------------------------------------------
use_git()
#> ✔ Initialising Git repo.
#> ✔ Adding ".Rproj.user", ".Rhistory", ".Rdata", ".httr-oauth", ".DS_Store", and
#>   ".quarto" to '.gitignore'.

Code of Conduct

Please note that the usethis project is released with a Contributor Code of Conduct. By contributing to this project, you agree to abide by its terms.