[R] Error: Line starting ' ...' is malformed!

[Ross Boylan]

A DESCRIPTION file begins with 0xFFFE and
$ file DESCRIPTION 
DESCRIPTION: Little-endian UTF-16 Unicode text, with CRLF, CR line terminators

I think it was created on Windows.

In R (2,15,1 on Debian GNU/Linux), using roxygen2, I get
> roxygenize("../GitHub/mice")
Error: Line starting '��P ...' is malformed!

Enter a frame number, or 0 to exit   

1: roxygenize("../GitHub/mice")
2: read.description(DESCRIPTION)
3: read.dcf(file)

Selection: 3
Called from: read.description(DESCRIPTION)
Browse[1]> Q

I'm not sure if the first 2 characters after line starting ', which are octal 
377, 376, will survive email; I stripped them out of the subject line.

The files (DESCRIPTION isn't the only one) have also caused trouble for git 
(even on  Windows 7), since it thinks they are binary.

Any advice about what to do?

I'm reluctant to change the format of the files because it's not my package.

Ross Boylan