[Linting Rule] Rd Files

Generated from 'wiki-linter.ts' on 2026-10-25, 09:29:25 UTC (v2.16.6), do not edit directly.

Rd Files ^[overview]

This rule ports the following steps of R CMD check (see the conformance table for the legend):

#	Step	Coverage	Note
45	Rd files (book)	🟩	\Sexpr macros are not evaluated
46	Rd metadata (book)	🟩⭐	⭐ also Rd names that differ only by case
47	Rd cross-references (book)	🔷	targets in other packages are asked of the signature database
50	Rd \usage sections (book)	🟩
51	Rd contents (book)	🟩
52	Rd line widths (book)	🟩
53	examples (book)	🔷⭐	⭐ also T and F in the examples parses the examples and checks what they call, without running them
54	PDF version of manual (book)	🔷	the Rd constructs that break the LaTeX rendering
55	PDF version of manual without index (book)	🔷	the Rd constructs that break the LaTeX rendering
88	examples with --run-donttest (book)	🔷⭐	⭐ also T and F in the examples the \donttest code is checked like all examples
89	for non-standard things in the check directory (book)	🔷	files tests, vignettes, and examples write into the working directory
90	for detritus in the temp directory (book)	🔶	only the files written by name
91	for new files in some other directories (book)	🔶	only the files written by name
92	HTML version of manual (book)	🔷	the Rd files that would not render

This rule is a best-effort rule.

Finds problems in the Rd files: syntax, unknown macros, required and duplicated sections, metadata, cross-references, line widths, contents, and the example code.
This linting rule is implemented in src/linter/rules/cmd-check/rd-files.ts.

Configuration

Linting rules can be configured by passing a configuration object to the linter query as shown in the example below. The rd-files rule accepts the following configuration options:

• bibentries
  report bibentries a page cites but does not show
  R CMD check #45
• contents
  report missing descriptions and values, argument items without text, and generated boilerplate
  R CMD check #51
• crossReferences
  report links to topics no page or package provides
  R CMD check #47
• docStyle
  report S3 methods a \usage calls by their full name instead of with \method
  R CMD check #50
• examples
  parse the examples and report their syntax errors, undefined calls, T and F, q(), and the files they write
  R CMD check #53, #88
• examplesWidth
  the widest line an \examples section may have
  R CMD check #52
• extraMacros
  Rd macro files to load besides those of the package
  R CMD check #45
• keywords
  the keywords besides the standard ones a page may use
  R CMD check #45
• lineWidths
  report lines in \usage and \examples wider than RdFilesConfig#usageWidth and RdFilesConfig#examplesWidth
  R CMD check #52
• metadata
  report duplicate names and aliases, names that differ only by case, and pages without any alias
  R CMD check #46
• minLevel
  drop parser diagnostics below this checkRd level, the messages of prepare_Rd are always kept
  R CMD check #45
• parse
  report what the Rd parser of R reports: syntax errors, unknown macros, and unexpected sections
  R CMD check #45
• requireValue
  report functions documented without a \value section
  R CMD check #51
• standardKeywords
  report keywords that are neither standard nor in RdFilesConfig#keywords
  R CMD check #45
• uncertainLinks
  also report links whose target flowR cannot decide
  R CMD check #47
• usageWidth
  the widest line a \usage section may have
  R CMD check #52

Examples

A project with the code R/code.R:

f <- function(x) x

and the files

DESCRIPTION:

Package: pkg
Version: 1.0
Title: A Package
License: MIT

man/f.Rd:

\name{f}
\alias{f}
\title{F}
\description{D}
\details{
  a \foo{x}}

The linting query can be used to run this rule on the above example:

[ { "type": "linter",   "rules": [ { "name": "rd-files",     "config": {} } ] } ]

Results (prettified and summarized):

Query: linter (6 ms)
   ╰ Rd Files (rd-files):
       ╰ certain:
           ╰ rd-unknown-macro in man/f.Rd at /pkg/man/f.Rd:6.1

More examples are the test cases in test/functionality/linter/cmd-check/lint-rd-files.test.ts.