[R-pkg-devel] LICENSE file in an R package for CRAN submission

[Ben Bolker]

In case you're thinking of putting the package on CRAN, note also from 
the CRAN policy https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/policies.html:

 > Packages with licenses not listed at 
https://svn.r-project.org/R/trunk/share/licenses/license.db will 
generally not be accepted.

On 2023-08-09 11:15 a.m., Ben Bolker wrote:
>     You have two choices:
> 
> * put LICENSE in your .Rbuildignore file so that it shows up on Github 
> but is excluded from the package
> 
> * follow the instructions in 
> https://cran.r-project.org/doc/manuals/R-exts.html#Licensing to refer to 
> LICENSE in your DESCRIPTION file. However, CRAN generally prefers that 
> you use a standard license ("GPL-2", "GPL-3"), to make it easier for 
> them to know that you've really complied with their openness 
> requirements, and that you *not* include a license file that is 
> redundant with that spec:
> 
>  > Whereas you should feel free to include a license file in your source 
> distribution, please do not arrange to install yet another copy of the 
> GNU COPYING or COPYING.LIB files but refer to the copies on 
> https://www.R-project.org/Licenses/ and included in the R distribution 
> (in directory share/licenses). Since files named LICENSE or LICENCE will 
> be installed, do not use these names for standard license files. To 
> include comments about the licensing rather than the body of a license, 
> use a file named something like LICENSE.note.
> 
> On 2023-08-09 11:06 a.m., Emanuele Cordano wrote:
>> Dear list,
>>
>> is there a way to put the LICENSE file within an R package like in 
>> Github,
>> I have an R package on Github with a a LICENSE file compliant to 
>> Github and
>> containing the text of the licence citing in the DESCRIPION file. But 
>> when
>> I check the package , I obatained the following output:
>>
>> * checking top-level files ... NOTE
>> File
>>    LICENSE
>>
>> is not mentioned in the DESCRIPTION file.
>>
>> How can I solve this?
>> Thank you
>> best
>> Emanuele Cordano
> 

-- 
Dr. Benjamin Bolker
Professor, Mathematics & Statistics and Biology, McMaster University
Director, School of Computational Science and Engineering
(Acting) Graduate chair, Mathematics & Statistics
 > E-mail is sent at my convenience; I don't expect replies outside of 
working hours.