usethis

usethis is a workflow package: it automates repetitive tasks that arise during project setup and development, both for R packages and non-package projects.

Installation

Install the released version of usethis from CRAN:

install.packages("usethis")

Or install the development version from GitHub with:

# install.packages("devtools")
devtools::install_github("r-lib/usethis")

Usage

Most use_*() functions operate on the active project: literally, a directory on your computer. If you’ve just used usethis to create a new package or project, that will be the active project. Otherwise, usethis verifies that current working directory is or is below a valid project directory and that becomes the active project. Use proj_get() or proj_sitrep() to manually query the project and read more in the docs.

A few usethis functions have no strong connections to projects and will expect you to provide a path.

usethis is quite chatty, explaining what it’s doing and assigning you tasks. ✔ indicates something usethis has done for you. ● indicates that you’ll need to do some work yourself.

Below is a quick look at how usethis can help to set up a package. But remember, many usethis functions are also applicable to analytical projects that are not packages.

library(usethis)

# Create a new package -------------------------------------------------
path <- file.path(tempdir(), "mypkg")
create_package(path)
#> ✔ Creating '/tmp/RtmplWepAV/mypkg/'
#> ✔ Setting active project to '/private/tmp/RtmplWepAV/mypkg'
#> ✔ Creating 'R/'
#> ✔ Creating 'man/'
#> ✔ Writing 'DESCRIPTION'
#> Package: mypkg
#> Title: What the Package Does (One Line, Title Case)
#> Version: 0.0.0.9000
#> Authors@R (parsed):
#>     * Hadley Wickham <hadley@rstudio.com> [aut, cre]
#>     * RStudio [cph]
#> Description: What the package does (one paragraph).
#> License: GPL-3
#> Encoding: UTF-8
#> LazyData: true
#> ✔ Writing 'NAMESPACE'
#> ✔ Setting active project to '<no active project>'
# only needed since this session isn't interactive
proj_activate(path)
#> ✔ Changing working directory to '/tmp/RtmplWepAV/mypkg/'
#> ✔ Setting active project to '/private/tmp/RtmplWepAV/mypkg'

# Modify the description ----------------------------------------------
use_mit_license("My Name")
#> ✔ Setting License field in DESCRIPTION to 'MIT + file LICENSE'
#> ✔ Writing 'LICENSE.md'
#> ✔ Adding '^LICENSE\\.md$' to '.Rbuildignore'
#> ✔ Writing 'LICENSE'

use_package("MASS", "Suggests")
#> ✔ Adding 'MASS' to Suggests field in DESCRIPTION
#> ● Use `requireNamespace("MASS", quietly = TRUE)` to test if package is installed
#> ● Then use `MASS::fun()` to refer to functions.

# Set up various packages ---------------------------------------------
use_roxygen_md()
#> ✔ Setting Roxygen field in DESCRIPTION to 'list(markdown = TRUE)'
#> ✔ Setting RoxygenNote field in DESCRIPTION to '6.1.1'
#> ● Run `devtools::document()`

use_rcpp()
#> ✔ Creating 'src/'
#> ✔ Adding '*.o', '*.so', '*.dll' to 'src/.gitignore'
#> ● Copy and paste the following lines into '/private/tmp/RtmplWepAV/mypkg/R/mypkg-package.R':
#>   ## usethis namespace: start
#>   #' @useDynLib mypkg, .registration = TRUE
#>   ## usethis namespace: end
#>   NULL
#> ✔ Adding 'Rcpp' to LinkingTo field in DESCRIPTION
#> ✔ Adding 'Rcpp' to Imports field in DESCRIPTION
#> ● Copy and paste the following lines into '/private/tmp/RtmplWepAV/mypkg/R/mypkg-package.R':
#>   ## usethis namespace: start
#>   #' @importFrom Rcpp sourceCpp
#>   ## usethis namespace: end
#>   NULL

use_revdep()
#> ✔ Creating 'revdep/'
#> ✔ Adding '^revdep$' to '.Rbuildignore'
#> ✔ Adding 'checks', 'library', 'checks.noindex', 'library.noindex', 'data.sqlite', '*.html' to 'revdep/.gitignore'
#> ✔ Writing 'revdep/email.yml'
#> ● Run checks with `revdepcheck::revdep_check(num_workers = 4)`

# Set up other files -------------------------------------------------
use_readme_md()
#> ✔ Writing 'README.md'

use_news_md()
#> ✔ Writing 'NEWS.md'

use_test("my-test")
#> ✔ Adding 'testthat' to Suggests field in DESCRIPTION
#> ✔ Creating 'tests/testthat/'
#> ✔ Writing 'tests/testthat.R'
#> ✔ Writing 'tests/testthat/test-my-test.R'

x <- 1
y <- 2
use_data(x, y)
#> ✔ Creating 'data/'
#> ✔ Saving 'x', 'y' to 'data/x.rda', 'data/y.rda'

# Use git ------------------------------------------------------------
use_git()
#> ✔ Initialising Git repo
#> ✔ Adding '.Rhistory', '.RData', '.Rproj.user' to '.gitignore'

Please note that the usethis project is released with a Contributor Code of Conduct. By contributing to this project, you agree to abide by its terms.