[Rd] Minimal DESCRIPTION file

David Brahm brahm at alum.mit.edu
Fri Aug 27 16:33:32 CEST 2004


I wrote:
> My "g.data" contributed package fails under R-devel...because the
> DESCRIPTION file [of packages it creates] lacks a "Version" field.
> My question is, what else is necessary for a minimal package?
> A comment inside .find.package() refers to tools:::check_package_description,
> but I could not find such a function.

Prof Brian D. Ripley <ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk> responded:
> It is tools:::.check_package_description
>               ^

Thank you!  I see the typo in the comment (line 690 of library.R) has now been
corrected.  .check_package_description() and "Writing R Extensions" both
clearly and consistently state that `Package', `Version', `License',
`Description', `Title', `Author', and `Maintainer' fields are mandatory, so I
have added these to the packages (DDP's) that g.data creates.

g.data_1.5.tar.gz is now available on CRAN.

Maybe someday I'll do a major re-write to use lazy loading, but not today...
-- 
                              -- David Brahm (brahm at alum.mit.edu)



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