usethis package

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

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.

Note

Before using usethis functions, make sure to get a PAT from GitHub and store it in GITHUB_PAT envrironment variable. If it is already available, no need to set this. The easiest way to get PAT is with usethis and then store it in git credentials.

usethis::create_github_token()
gitcreds::gitcreds_set()

The other way is to use credentials::set_github_pat(). If you want to drop existing GITHUB_PAT and ask for a new one, run credentials::set_github_pat(force_new = TRUE).

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 -------------------------------------------------
tmp <- file.path(tempdir(), "mypkg")
create_package(tmp)
#> ✔ Setting active project to '/private/var/folders/vr/gzrbtprx6ybg85y5pvwm1ct40000gn/T/RtmpGwzXO5/mypkg'
#> ✔ Creating 'R/'
#> ✔ Creating 'man/'
#> ✔ Writing 'DESCRIPTION'
#> ✔ Writing 'NAMESPACE'

# 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.

use_dev_package("callr")
#> ✔ Adding 'callr' to Imports field in DESCRIPTION
#> ✔ Adding 'r-lib/callr' to Remotes field in DESCRIPTION

# Set up various packages ---------------------------------------------
use_roxygen_md()
#> ✔ Setting Roxygen field in DESCRIPTION to 'list(markdown = TRUE)'
#> ✔ Setting RoxygenNote field in DESCRIPTION to '6.1.0'
#> ● Run `devtools::document()`

use_rcpp()
#> ✔ Adding 'Rcpp' to LinkingTo field in DESCRIPTION
#> ✔ Adding 'Rcpp' to Imports field in DESCRIPTION
#> ✔ Creating 'src/'
#> ✔ Adding '*.o', '*.so', '*.dll' to 'src/.gitignore'
#> ● Include the following roxygen tags somewhere in your package
#>   #' @useDynLib mypkg, .registration = TRUE
#>   #' @importFrom Rcpp sourceCpp
#>   NULL
#> ● Run `devtools::document()`

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'

Other useful functions are

Other useful usethis functions

Functions	Use
use_description	Create or modify DESCRIPTION
edit_r_profile	opens .Rprofile
edit_r_environ	opens .Renviron
edit_r_makevars	opens .R/Makevars
use_r	Create or edit R script files
use_package	Adds a CRAN package dependency to DESCRIPTION
use_import_from	Imports a function from another package by adding the roxygen2 @importFrom tag to the package-level documentation. Importing a function from another package allows you to refer to it without a namespace (e.g., fun() instead of package::fun()).
use_c	Adds infrastructure needed to use compiled code
use_cpp11	Use C++ via the cpp11 package
use_vignette	Create a vignette
use_travis	Enable CI using Travis, creates .travis.yml with basic configuration for testing
use_github_actions	Sets up continuous integration (CI) using GitHub Actions
use_appveyor	Enable CI using AppVeyor, creates appveyor.yml with basic configuration for testing
use_circleci	Enable CI using CircleCI, creates .circleci/config.yml with basic configuration for testing
use_coverage	Adds test coverage reporting to a package
use_logo	Adds a logo to a package
use_cran_comments	Create a file where you can add comments to include with your CRAN submission
use_readme_rmd	Set up the package to include a README file in Rmarkdown format. So rich intermingling of code and output is possible.
use_news_md	Add a file to the package to give news on changes in new versions