So to be super explicit, the thing you need to do on the command line to check a package fully is R CMD build packageDirectory R CMD check packageDirectory_x.y.z.tar.gz ie. always run it on a source tarball. You can run R CMD check directly on packageDirectory, but it is not the same
Encapsulated in a Makefile, it looks something like this base_minfi: minfi ifneq (,$(wildcard minfi/DESCRIPTION)) minfi_VERSION:=$(shell grep ^Version minfi/DESCRIPTION | sed 's_Version: __') endif On Tue, Nov 18, 2025 at 5:37 AM Duncan Murdoch <[email protected]> wrote: > On 2025-11-17 9:24 p.m., Julian Grimm wrote: > > Hello together, > > > > I have a question regarding the Authors@R field. > > When I run R CMD check . in a package either created by myself with > > pkgKitten::kitten, usethis::create_package or even on existing packages > on > > Cran (e.g. the validate package), > > I get the following error: > > > > * checking for file ‘./DESCRIPTION’ ... ERROR > > Required fields missing or empty: > > ‘Author’ ‘Maintainer’ > > * DONE > > > > The corresponding line in the DESCRIPTION file is: > > > > Authors@R: person("Your", "Name", role = c("aut", "cre"), > > email = "[email protected]") > > > > and Authors@R: > > person("First", "Last", , "[email protected]", role = c("aut", > > "cre")) > > > > for pkgKitten and usethis respectively. > > > > Why does this error occur? > > You haven't built the package. Some checks only succeed on a built copy > of a package, i.e. the *.tar.gz file. The devtools::check() function > will do both the build and test. > > Part of building the package modifies the DESCRIPTION file to insert the > Author and Maintainer fields. Another important difference is that > .Rbuildignore is processed, so you won't get warnings about files that > shouldn't be there, or false success if you accidentally specify > ignoring a file that should be kept. > > Duncan Murdoch > > ______________________________________________ > [email protected] mailing list > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-package-devel > -- Best, Kasper [[alternative HTML version deleted]] ______________________________________________ [email protected] mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-package-devel
