[R-pkg-devel] How to refer to COPYRIGHTS and AUTHORS extra files in DESCRIPTION

[git demont]

Thank you Ahmadou, Robert and Gábor,

In package 'presser'  Gábor used no dedicated AUTHORS file but use
'comment' and 'role' tag of Authors using R to mention their contribution and
refer to further comments in file (e.g.  inst/credits/redoc.md, src/md5.h)

Robert, also described a strategy using Authors using R

Ahmadou, used something similar to what I have done in the 'IFC' package I
want to submit on CRAN, with extra AUTHORS and COPYRIGHTS files found in
inst/ directory of its 'cgal4h' package. Then, he used "Author: file
inst/AUTHORS" and "Copyright: file inst/COPYRIGHTS" in DESCRIPTION file to
refer to these files.

In 'RcppMsgPack' package, I was using as an example in my 1st message,
extra AUTHORS and COPYRIGHTS files found in 'inst/' directory were also
used.
DESCRIPTION file contains:
- Author: Travers Ching and Dirk Eddelbuettel; the authors and contributors
of MsgPack
- Copyright: file inst/COPYRIGHTS

So, as far as I understand from your replies, there seems to be no general
rule on how to do it.
But it seems that when Author: or Copyright: is used in DESCRIPTION and
refer to a file then 'inst/' directory should be prepend to the file name
(e.g.  Copyright: file inst/COPYRIGHTS)

In next submission I will use in DESCRIPTION:
Authors using R and have a 'inst/AUTHORS' file
Copyright: file inst/COPYRIGHTS  and have a 'inst/COPYRIGHTS' file
Description: <the description of my 'IFC' package> + See file 'COPYRIGHTS'
and file 'AUTHORS' for a list of copyright holders and authors

Thanks a lot for your help,
Yohann

On Tue, Jul 7, 2020 at 7:56 PM Ahmadou Dicko <dicko.ahmadou using gmail.com>
wrote:

> Hi Yohann,
>
> I had a similar situation with my first package.
> I used Author + Maintainer field instead Authors using R and I added the
> inst/AUTHORS to Author and my email to the Maintainer field.
> In the list of author names (and I have a lot of them in cgal4h), make
> sure that you also define the different roles (i.e ctb, cph, etc).
> You can access the metadata here and the Gitlab repository there
>
> https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=cgal4h
>
> Hope it helps.
>
> Ahmadou
>
>
>
> On Tue, Jul 7, 2020 at 5:30 PM git demont <git.demont using gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Hi all,
>>
>> Sorry for asking again, but I got absolutely no advice on how to
>> correctly refer to extra copyrights and authors files in package
>> DESCRIPTION.
>> I know this can be considered as impolite and I don't want to do so.
>> So, I waited one week until sending the present message and I promise I
>> will not send another to ask for the same thing after this one.
>>
>> Best,
>> Yohann
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Jun 29, 2020 at 4:04 PM git demont <git.demont using gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> > Hi all,
>> >
>> > I am developing a package called 'IFC'.
>> > https://github.com/gitdemont/IFC/
>> > <https://github.com/gitdemont/IFC/tree/v0.0.7>
>> >
>> > Last submission (v0.0.7) was almost the final one to get it CRAN
>> > https://github.com/gitdemont/IFC/tree/v0.0.7
>> > It was manually checked and it should be accepted if I removed a dontrun
>> > (that I unfortunately forgot).
>> >
>> > For the next submission ( I hope it will be the good one ), in addition
>> to
>> > fixing the dontrun, I would like to include a small modification that
>> was
>> > not asked. I would like to avoid another round of submission/review by
>> > introducing an issue that was not here. In DESCRIPTION of 'IFC', I am
>> > inviting users to refer to files for copyrights and authorship. "See
>> file
>> > inst/COPYRIGHTS and file inst/AUTHORS for a list of copyright holders
>> and
>> > authors"
>> >
>> > However, I am not sure whether I should say 'inst/COPYRIGHTS' and
>> > 'inst/AUTHORS' because these files are in the 'inst/' directory of the
>> > built tar.gz, or if I should only refer to 'COPYRIGHTS' and 'AUTHORS'
>> > (without inst/) because once installed these files will be at the root
>> of
>> > IFC library directory.
>> > The same question olds for "Copyright: file inst/COPYRIGHTS".
>> >
>> > In CRAN policies, one can read:
>> > "Where copyrights are held by an entity other than the package authors,
>> > this should preferably be indicated via ‘cph’ roles in the ‘Authors using R’
>> > field, or using a ‘Copyright’ field (if necessary referring to an
>> > inst/COPYRIGHTS file)."
>> > In 'RcppMsgPack' for instance we have:
>> > - in the description: "See the files 'COPYRIGHTS' and 'AUTHORS' for a
>> full
>> > list of copyright holders and contributors to 'msgpack-c'."
>> > - in the copyrights: "inst/COPYRIGHTS".
>> >
>> > Best,
>> > Yohann
>> >
>>
>>         [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
>>
>> ______________________________________________
>> R-package-devel using r-project.org mailing list
>> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-package-devel
>>
>
>
> --
> Ahmadou H. DICKO, PhD
>
> Statistical consultant
> Mobile: (+221) 77 123 81 69
> Skype: dicko.ahmadou.h
> Twitter : @dickoah
> Gitlab: gitlab/dickoa
> Github: github/dickoa
>

	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]