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So, I'm creating a script to extend the functionality of devtools::create() and I'm noticing some slightly odd behavior when I double check things with utils::maintainer. Here's a MWE where I set the Authors@R section of the description file through the devtools.desc.author option:

options(devtools.desc.license = "AGPL-3")
options(devtools.desc.author = "'Joe Dirt <joe@durt.ee> [aut, cre]'")

descArgs <- list(Package = "testPkg",
                 Title = "testPkg",
                 Description = "some desc.")

options(devtools.desc = descArgs)

devtools::create(path = "testPkg", check = TRUE)

Now, if you go ahead and run devtools::install("testPkg", quiet=TRUE), and then maintainer("testPkg") you get

> maintainer("testPkg")
[1] "'Joe Dirt' <joe@durt.ee>"

So my question is: why is the maintainer's name quoted, here?

StevieP
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1 Answers1

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This seems to be an issue with how the Maintainer field is auto generated from Authors@R. See:http://cran.r-project.org/doc/manuals/r-release/R-exts.html

Both ‘Author’ and ‘Maintainer’ fields can be omitted if a suitable ‘Authors@R’ field is given. This field can be used to provide a refined and machine-readable description of the package “authors” (in particular specifying their precise roles), via suitable R code. The roles can include ‘"aut"’ (author) for full authors, ‘"cre"’ (creator) for the package maintainer, and ‘"ctb"’ (contributor) for other contributors, ‘"cph"’ (copyright holder), among others. See ?person for more information. Note that no role is assumed by default. Auto-generated package citation information takes advantage of this specification. The ‘Author’ and ‘Maintainer’ fields are auto-generated from it if needed when building5 or installing.

Therefore, you should use the person function to specify the author list as follows:

options(devtools.desc.author ="c(person('Joe','Dirt',email='joe@durt.ee',role=c('aut','cre')))")
Jeremy Coyle
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