Parse DESCRIPTION files
Parse, manipulate and reformat DESCRIPTION files. The package provides two APIs, one is object oriented, the other one is procedural and manipulates the files in place.
install.packages("desc")library(desc)The object oriented API uses R6 classes.
A new description object can be created by reading a DESCRIPTION
file form the disk. By default the DESCRIPTION file in the current
directory is read:
desc <- description$new()desc#> Package: desc
#> Title: Manipulate DESCRIPTION Files
#> Version: 1.0.0
#> Author: Gábor Csárdi
#> Maintainer: Gábor Csárdi <csardi.gabor@gmail.com>
#> Description: Tools to read, write, create, and manipulate DESCRIPTION
#> files. It is intented for packages that create or manipulate other
#> packages.
#> License: MIT + file LICENSE
#> URL: https://github.com/r-lib/desc
#> BugReports: https://github.com/r-lib/desc/issues
#> Imports:
#> R6
#> Suggests:
#> newpackage,
#> testthat,
#> whoami
#> Encoding: UTF-8
#> LazyData: true
#> RoxygenNote: 5.0.0
A new object can also be created from scratch:
desc2 <- description$new("!new")
desc2#> Package: {{ Package }}
#> Title: {{ Title }}
#> Version: 1.0.0
#> Authors@R (parsed):
#> * Jo Doe <jodoe@dom.ain> [aut, cre]
#> Maintainer: {{ Maintainer }}
#> Description: {{ Description }}
#> License: {{ License }}
#> URL: {{ URL }}
#> BugReports: {{ BugReports }}
#> Encoding: UTF-8
Most DESCRIPTION fields may be formatted in multiple equivalent ways.
desc does not reformat fields, unless they are updated or reformatting
is explicitly requested via a call to the normalize() method or using
the normalize argument of the write() method.
get() and set() queries or updates a field:
desc$set("Package", "foo")
desc$get("Package")#> Package
#> "foo"
They work with multiple fields as well:
desc$set(Package = "bar", Title = "Bar Package")
desc$get(c("Package", "Title"))#> Package Title
#> "bar" "Bar Package"
Package dependencies can be set and updated via an easier API:
desc$get_deps()#> type package version
#> 1 Suggests testthat *
#> 2 Suggests whoami *
#> 3 Suggests newpackage *
#> 4 Imports R6 *
desc$set_dep("mvtnorm")
desc$set_dep("Rcpp", "LinkingTo")
desc$get_deps()#> type package version
#> 1 Suggests testthat *
#> 2 Suggests whoami *
#> 3 Suggests newpackage *
#> 4 Imports mvtnorm *
#> 5 Imports R6 *
#> 6 LinkingTo Rcpp *
desc#> Package: bar
#> Title: Bar Package
#> Version: 1.0.0
#> Author: Gábor Csárdi
#> Maintainer: Gábor Csárdi <csardi.gabor@gmail.com>
#> Description: Tools to read, write, create, and manipulate DESCRIPTION
#> files. It is intented for packages that create or manipulate other
#> packages.
#> License: MIT + file LICENSE
#> URL: https://github.com/r-lib/desc
#> BugReports: https://github.com/r-lib/desc/issues
#> Imports:
#> mvtnorm,
#> R6
#> Suggests:
#> newpackage,
#> testthat,
#> whoami
#> LinkingTo:
#> Rcpp
#> Encoding: UTF-8
#> LazyData: true
#> RoxygenNote: 5.0.0
Collate fields can be queried and set using simple character vectors of file names:
desc$set_collate(list.files("../R"))#> Warning in idesc_set_collate(self, private, files, match.arg(which)): No files
#> in 'Collate' field
desc$get_collate()#> character(0)
Authors information, when specified via the Authors@R field, also has
a simplified API:
desc <- description$new("tools/pkg2")
desc$get_authors()#> [1] "Hadley Wickham <h.wickham@gmail.com> [aut, cre, cph]"
#> [2] "Peter Danenberg <pcd@roxygen.org> [aut, cph]"
#> [3] "Manuel Eugster [aut, cph]"
#> [4] "RStudio [cph]"
desc$add_author("Bugs", "Bunny", email = "bb@acme.com")
desc$add_me()
desc$add_author_gh("jeroen")
desc$get_authors()#> [1] "Hadley Wickham <h.wickham@gmail.com> [aut, cre, cph]"
#> [2] "Peter Danenberg <pcd@roxygen.org> [aut, cph]"
#> [3] "Manuel Eugster [aut, cph]"
#> [4] "RStudio [cph]"
#> [5] "Bugs Bunny <bb@acme.com>"
#> [6] "First Last <first.last@dom.com> [ctb]"
#> [7] "Jeroen Ooms <jeroen@berkeley.edu> [ctb]"
If the Author field is specified, it can be changed to a Authors@R
field using coerce_authors_at_r(), incorporating the Maintainer
information if necessary:
desc <- description$new("!new")
desc$del("Authors@R")
desc$del("Maintainer")
desc$set(Author = "Gábor Csárdi <csardi.gabor@gmail.com>")
desc$get_authors()#> Error in ensure_authors_at_r(self): No 'Authors@R' field!
#> You can create one with $add_author.
#> You can also use $coerce_authors_at_r() to change Author fields
desc$coerce_authors_at_r()
desc$get_authors()#> [1] "Gábor Csárdi <csardi.gabor@gmail.com> [aut]"
The procedural API is simpler to use for one-off DESCRIPTION
manipulation, since it does not require dealing with description
objects. Each object oriented method has a procedural counterpart that
works on a file, and potentially writes its result back to the same
file.
For example, adding a new dependency to DESCRIPTION in the current
working directory can be done with
desc_set_dep("newpackage", "Suggests")#> Package: desc
#> Title: Manipulate DESCRIPTION Files
#> Version: 1.4.1.9000
#> Authors@R (parsed):
#> * Gábor Csárdi <csardi.gabor@gmail.com> [aut, cre]
#> * Kirill Müller [aut]
#> * Jim Hester <james.f.hester@gmail.com> [aut]
#> * Maëlle Salmon [ctb] (<https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2815-0399>)
#> * RStudio [cph, fnd]
#> Maintainer: Gábor Csárdi <csardi.gabor@gmail.com>
#> Description: Tools to read, write, create, and manipulate DESCRIPTION
#> files. It is intended for packages that create or manipulate other
#> packages.
#> License: MIT + file LICENSE
#> URL: https://github.com/r-lib/desc#readme, https://r-lib.github.io/desc/
#> BugReports: https://github.com/r-lib/desc/issues
#> Depends:
#> R (>= 3.4)
#> Imports:
#> cli,
#> R6,
#> rprojroot,
#> utils
#> Suggests:
#> callr,
#> covr,
#> gh,
#> newpackage,
#> spelling,
#> testthat,
#> whoami,
#> withr
#> Config/Needs/website: tidyverse/tidytemplate
#> Config/testthat/edition: 3
#> Encoding: UTF-8
#> Language: en-US
#> Roxygen: list(r6 = FALSE, load = "installed", markdown = TRUE)
#> RoxygenNote: 7.2.1.9000
#> Collate:
#> 'assertions.R'
#> 'authors-at-r.R'
#> 'built.R'
#> 'classes.R'
#> 'collate.R'
#> 'constants.R'
#> 'deps.R'
#> 'desc-package.R'
#> 'description.R'
#> 'encoding.R'
#> 'latex.R'
#> 'non-oo-api.R'
#> 'package-archives.R'
#> 'read.R'
#> 'remotes.R'
#> 'str.R'
#> 'syntax_checks.R'
#> 'urls.R'
#> 'utils.R'
#> 'validate.R'
#> 'version.R'
This added newpackage to the Suggests field:
desc_get("Suggests")#> Suggests
#> "\n callr,\n covr,\n gh,\n newpackage,\n spelling,\n testthat,\n whoami,\n withr"
So the full list of dependencies are now
desc_get_deps()#> type package version
#> 1 Depends R >= 3.4
#> 2 Imports cli *
#> 3 Imports R6 *
#> 4 Imports rprojroot *
#> 5 Imports utils *
#> 6 Suggests callr *
#> 7 Suggests covr *
#> 8 Suggests gh *
#> 9 Suggests newpackage *
#> 10 Suggests spelling *
#> 11 Suggests testthat *
#> 12 Suggests whoami *
#> 13 Suggests withr *
Please note that the desc project is released with a Contributor Code of Conduct. By contributing to this project, you agree to abide by its terms.
MIT © Gábor Csárdi, RStudio Inc