[R-pkg-devel] How to format the NEWS.md file for CRAN submissions?

[Konrad Rudolph]

My package is creating a CRAN check NOTE because CRAN does not like the way
my NEWS.md file [1] is formatted.

I am largely adhering to existing conventions with regards to my NEWS.md,
in particular the (rather minimal) GNU conventions [2] mentioned in R-exts
as well as the conventions used by ‘pkgdown’ to compile the file into a web
page. The one peculiarity of my NEWS.md file (and where it diverges from
the documented ‘pkgdown’ convention) is caused by the fact that my package
has undergone a name change in the past. As a consequence, not all headings
in the NEWS.md file follow the format `# ‹pkgname› ‹version›`.
Consequently, the CRAN check complains

>   Cannot extract version info from the following section titles:
>     modules 0.x

I have two questions:

1. Am I overlooking where the CRAN requirements for NEWS files are
documented? As far as I can see I am not violating a documented rule.
2. What is the best way of avoiding this NOTE _without_ dropping the
changelog pre package name change? In particular, since ‘pkgdown’ does not
support this I would like keep these changes in a single NEWS.md file
rather than moving them into a separate file. Likewise, I think it would be
misleading (and hence undesirable) to change the section headings to use
the current package name for the old revisions.

[1]
https://github.com/klmr/box/blob/9f35bd28b26306fe94ade874c2b93a89ae3f3a61/NEWS.md
[2] https://www.gnu.org/prep/standards/standards.html#NEWS-File

Cheers,
Konrad

-- 
Konrad Rudolph // @klmr

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