Devtools v1.13.2

Workaround a regression in Rcpp::compileAttributes().
Add trimws() implementation for R 3.1 support.

Devtools v1.13.1

• Bugfix for installing from git remote and not passing git2r credentials
  (@james-atkins, #1498)

• Fix test() compatibility with testthat versions 1.0.2 (#1503).

• Fix install_version(), install_bitbucket(), install_local(),
  install_url(), install_svn(), install_bioc() gain quiet arguments and
  properly pass them to internal functions. (#1502)

Devtools 1.13.0

This release contains a number of bugfixes and should be the last release of the monolithic devtools package. After this release much of devtools' functionality will be split into separate smaller packages, however the devtools package will still remain as a meta package.

New Features

• spell_check gains a dict argument to set a custom language or dictionary

• release() now checks documentation for spelling errors by default.

• New use_gpl3_license() sets the license field in DESCRIPTION and
  includes a copy of the license in LICENSE.

Revdep check improvements

• Various minor improvements around checking of reverse dependencies
  (#1284, @krlmlr). All packages involved are listed at the start,
  the whole process is now more resilient against package
  installation failures.

• revdep_check() and revdep_check_resume() gain a skip argument
  which takes a character vector of packages to skip.

• revdep_check() and check_cran() gain a quiet_check argument.
  You can use quiet_check = FALSE to see the actual text of R CMD
  check as it runs (not recommending with multiple threads).

• revdep_check_resume() now takes ... which can be used to
  override settings from revdep_check(). For debugging a problem
  with package checks, try
  revdep_check(threads = 1, quiet_check = FALSE)

• revdep_check() collects timing information in timing.md (#1319, @krlmlr).

• Package names and examples are sorted in case-insensitive C collation (#1322, @krlmlr).

• use_revdep() adds .gitignore entry for check database (#1321, @krlmlr).

• Own package is installed in temporary library for revdep checking (#1338, @krlmlr).

• Automated revdep check e-mails now can use the new my_version and
  you_cant_install variables. The e-mail template has been updated
  to use these variables (#1285, @krlmlr).

• Installation failures are logged during revdep checking, by default in
  revdep/install. Once an installation has failed, it is not attempted
  a second time (#1300, @krlmlr).

• Print summary table in README.md and problems.md (#1284, @krlmlr).Revdep
  check improvements (#1284)

Bug fixes and minor improvements

• Handle case of un-installed package being passed to session_info (#1281).

• Using authentication to access Github package name. (#1262, @eriknil).

• spell_check() checks for hunspell before running (#1475, @jimvine).

• add_desc_package() checks for package dependencies correctly (#1463, @thomasp85).

• Remove deprecated args argument from install_git() to allow passthrough to install (#1373, @ReportMort).

• added a quiet argument to install_bitbucket(), with a default value
  of FALSE (fixes issue #1345, @plantarum).

• update_packages() allows for override of interactive prompt (#1260, @pkq).

• use_test() template no longer includes useless comments (#1349)

• Add encoding support in test_dir() call by adding reference to pkg$encoding (#1306, @hansharhoff)

• Parse valid Git remote URLs that lack trailing .git, e.g. GitHub browser URLs (#1253, @jennybc).

• Add a check_bioconductor() internal function to automatically install
  BiocInstaller() if it is not installed and the user wants to do so.

• Improve Git integration. use_git_ignore() and use_git_config() gain
  quiet argument, tests work without setting user.name and user.email Git
  configuration settings (#1320, @krlmlr).

• Improve Git status checks used in release() (#1205, @krlmlr).

• Improved handling of local file:// repositories in install() (#1284, @krlmlr).

• setup() and create() gain new quiet argument (#1284, @krlmlr).

• Avoid unnecessary query of available_packages() (#1269, @krlmlr).

• Add cache setting to AppVeyor template (#1290, @krlmlr).

• Fix AppVeyor test by manually installing curl (#1301).

• install(dependencies = FALSE) doesn't query the available packages anymore (@krlmlr, #1269).

• use_travis() now opens a webpage in your browser to more easily activate
  a repo.

• use_readme_rmd() and use_readme() share a common template with sections
  for package overview, GitHub installation (if applicable), and an example
  (@jennybc, #1287).

• test() doesn't load helpers twice anymore (@krlmlr, #1256).

• Fix auto download method selection for install_github() on R 3.1 which
  lacks "libcurl" in capabilities(). (@kiwiroy, #1244)

• Fix removal of vignette files by not trying to remove files twice anymore (#1291)

devtools 1.12.0

New features

• New install_bioc() function and bioc remote to install Bioconductor
  packages from their SVN repository.
• install_dev_deps() gets everything you need to start development on source
  package - it installs all dependencies, and roxygen2 (#1193).
• use_dev_version() automates the process of switching from a release
  version number by tweaking the DESCRIPTION, adding a heading to
  NEWS.md (if present), and checking into git (if you use it) (#1076.)
• use_github() accepts a host argument, similar to install_github()
  (@ijlyttle, #1101)

Bug fixes and minor improvements

• Update with Rtools-3.4 information, (@jimhester)
• devtools now uses https to access the RStudio CRAN mirror if it will work
  on your system (#1059)
• Handle case when a GitHub request returns a non-JSON error response.
  (@jimhester, #1204, #1211)
• Suggested packages, including those specified as Remotes: are now installed
  after package installation. This allows you to use circular Remotes:
  dependencies for two related packages as long as one of the dependencies is a
  Suggested package. (@jimhester, #1184, tidyverse/dplyr#1809)
• bug fix for installation of binary packages on windows, they must be
  installed directly from a zip file. (@jimhester, #1191, #1192)
• build_vignette() will now only install the "VignetteBuilder" if it's
  not present, not try and upgrade it if it is (#1139).
• clean_dll() Only removes package_name.def files and now operates
  recursively. (@jimhester, #1175, #1159, #1161)
• check_man() now prints a message if no problems are found (#1187).
• install_* functions and update_packages() refactored to allow updating of
  packages installed using any of the install methods. (@jimhester, #1067)
• install_github() now uses https://api.github.com as the host argument, so
  users can specify 'http:' or other protocols if needed. (@jimhester, #1131, #1200)
• load_all() runs package hooks before sourcing test helper files
  allowing test helper to make use of objects created when a package is loaded
  or attached. (@imanuelcostigan, #1146)
• revdep_check() will now create the revdep/ directory if it does not
  already exist (#1178).
• source_gist() gains a filename argument to specify a particular file to
  source from a GitHub gist. (@ateucher, #1172)
• Add a default codecov.yml file to turn off commenting with use_coverage()
  (@jimhester, #1188)
• Bug fix for 'nchar(text) : invalid multibyte string' errors when running
  write_dcf() on DESCRIPTION files with non-ASCII encodings (#1224, @jimhester).

devtools 1.11.1

• Bug fix in search_path_for_rtools() using the gcc-4.9.3 toolchain when
  there is no rtools setting in the windows registry. (@jimhester, #1155)

devtools 1.11.0

Infrastructure helpers

• create_description() now sets Encoding: UTF-8. This helps non-English
  package authors (#1123).
• All use_ function have been overhauled to be more consistent, particularly
  arround notification. Most functions now also ask to overwrite if a file
  already exists (#1074).
• use_coverage() now adds covr to "Suggests", rather than recommending you
  install it explicitly in .travis.yml.
• use_cran_badge() now uses HTTPS URL (@krlmlr, #1124).
• use_github() now confirms that you've picked a good title and description
  (#1092) and prints the url of the repo (#1063).
• use_news(), and use_test() open the files in RStudio (if you're using
  it and have the rstudioapi package installed).
• use_testthat() tells you what it's doing (#1056).
• use_travis() generates a template compatible with the newest R-travis.
• use_readme_md() creates a basic README.md template (#1064).
• use_revdep() has an updated template for the new revdep check
  system (#1090, @krlmlr).
• Removed the deprecated use_coveralls(), add_rstudio_project(),
  add_test_infrastructure(), and add_travis().

Checks and and release()

• check() now always succeeds (instead of throwing an error when
  R CMD check finds an ERROR), returning an object that summarises
  the check failures.
• check() gains run_dont_test and manual arguments to control whether or
  not \donttest{} tests are tested, or manuals are built. This defaults to
  FALSE, but release() runs check with it set to TRUE (#1071; #1087,
  @krlmlr).
• The cleanup argument to check() is deprecated: it now always returns
  the path to the check directory.
• check_built() allows you to run R CMD check on an already built package.
• check_cran() suppresses X11 with DISPLAY = "".
• release() has been tweaked to improve the order of the questions,
  and to ensure that you're ok with problems. It warns if both inst/NEWS.Rd
  and NEWS.md exist (@krlmlr, #1135), doesn't throw error if Git head is
  detached (@krlmlr, #1136).
• release() gains an args argument to control build options, e.g.
  to allow passing args = "--compact-vignettes=both" for packages with
  heavy PDF vignettes (@krlmlr, #1077).
• system_check() gains new arguments path to controls the working directory
  of the command, and throw to control whether or not it throws an error
  on command failure. env has been renamed to the more explicit env_vars.

Revdep checks

revdep_check() has been overhauled. All revdep_ functions now work like
other devtools functions, taking a path to the package as the first argument.

revdep_check() now saves its results to disk as check/check.rds, and the other revdep() functions read from that cache. This also allows you to resume a partial run with revdep_check_resume(). This should be a big time saver if something goes unexpected wrong in the middle of the checks. You can blow away the cache and start afresh with revdep_check_reset().

revdep_check_save_summary() now creates README.md to save one level of clicking in github. It also creates a problems.md that contains only results for only packages that had warnings or errors. Each problem is limited to at most 25 lines of output - this avoids lengthy output for failing examples. revdep_check_print_problems() prints a bulleted list of problems, suitable for inclusion in your cran-comments.md.

Summary results are reported as they come in, every then messages you'll get a message giving elapsed and estimated remaining time.

An experimental revdep_email() emails individual maintainers with their R CMD check summary results (#1014). See testthat and dplyr for example usage.

There were a handful of smaller fixes:

• revdep_check() doesn't complain about missing git2r package anymore
  (#1068, @krlmlr).
• Package index caches for revdep_check() now time out after 30 minutes.
• revdep_check_save_logs() has been removed - it is just not that useful.
• revdep_check_summary() has been removed - it never should have been
  part of the exported API.

Other improvements

• Devtools now uses new gcc toolchain on windows, if installed (@jimhester).
• install_git() now allows you to pass credentials to git2r to specify
  specific ssh credentials (@onlymee, #982)
• load_all() now sources all test helpers if you use testthat. This makes it
  much easier to interactively run tests (#1125). load_all() also correctly
  handles unix and windows subdirectories within R (@gaborcsardi, #1102)
• build_win() defaults to only R-devel, since this is most commonly
  what you want.
• Help shims now inform you that you're using development documentation
  (#1049).
• git_sha1() Fix fetching the latest git commit so that it also works
  for shallow git clones, i.e. git clones which make use of depth.
  (#1048, #1046, @nparley)

devtools 1.10.0

New features

• curl, evaluate, roxygen2 and rversions have been moved from Imports
  to Suggests to lighten the dependency load of devtools. If you run a
  function that needs one of the packages, you'll prompted to install it
  (#962, @jimhester).
• Devtools uses a new strategy for detecting RTools on windows: it now only
  looks for Rtools if you need to load_all() or build() a package with
  compiled code. This should make it easier to work with devtools if
  you're developing pure R packages (#947).
• package_file() lets you find files inside a package. It starts by
  finding the root directory of the package (i.e. the directory that contains
  DESCRIPTION) (#985).
• use_news_md() adds a basic NEWS.md template (#957).
• use_mit_license() writes the necessary infrastructure to declare and
  release an R package under the MIT license in a CRAN-compliant way.
  (#995, @kevinushey)
• check(cran = TRUE) adds --run-donttest since you do need to test
  code in \dontest() for CRAN submission (#1002).

Package installation

• install() installs packages specified in the Additional_repositories
  field, such as drat repositories. (#907, #1028, @jimhester). It
  correctly installs missing dependencies (#1013, @gaborcsardi). If called on a
  Bioconductor package, include the Bioconductor repositories if they are not
  already set (#895, @jimhester).
• install() gains a metadata argument which lets you add extra fields to
  the DESCRIPTION on install. (#1027, @rmflight)
• install_github() and install_git() only downloads and installs the
  package if the remote SHA1 reference differs from the currently installed
  reference (#903, @jimhester).
• install_local() captures git and github information and stores it in the
  DESCRIPTION (#1027, @rmflight).
• install_version() is more robust when handling multiple repos (#943, #1030,
  @jimhester).
• Bugfix for Remotes: feature that prevented it from working if devtools was
  not attached as is done in travis-r (#936, @jimhester).

Bug fixes and minor improvements

• check_dev_versions() checks only package dependencies (#983).
• check_man() replaces check_doc() (since most other functions are
  named after the corresponding directory). check_doc() will hang around
  as an alias for the forseeable future (#958).
• create() produces a dummy namespace will fake comment so roxygen2 will
  overwrite silently (#1016).
• create() and setup() are more permissive -- they now accept a path to
  either a new directory or empty directory. (#966, @kevinushey)
• document() now only runs update_collate() once.
• load_all() resolves a longstanding lazy load database corruption issue when
  reloading packages which define S3 methods on generics from base or other
  packages (#1001, @jimhester).
• release_checks() gains two new checks:
  • check_vignette_titles() checks that your vignette titles aren't the
    default "Vignette Title" (#960, @jennybc).
  • check_news_md() checks that NEWS.md isn't in your .Rbuildignore
    (since it's now supported by CRAN, #1042).
• revdep_check():
  • More verbose about which package is installed (#926, @krlmlr)
  • Verifies the integrity of already downloaded package archives
    (#930, @krlmlr)
  • Is now more tolerant of errors when retrieving the summary for a
    checked package (#929, @krlmlr).
  • When ncpus > 1, it includes the package name for when so you know
    which package has failed and can start looking at the output without
    needing to wait for all packages to finish (@mattdowle).
  • Uses proper repository when BiocInstaller::useDevel(TRUE)
    (#937, @jimhester).
• Shimmed system.file() now respects mustWork = TRUE and throws an error
  if the file does not exist (#1034).
• use_appveyor() template now creates failure.zip artifact instead of
  polluting the logs with R CMD check output (#1017, @krlmlr, @HenrikBengtsson).
• use_cran_comments() template has been improved (#1038).
• use_data() now warns when trying to save the same object twice,
  and stops if there is no object to save (#948, @krlmlr).
• use_revdep_check() no longer includes revdep_check_save_logs in
  default template. I found I never used the logs and they just cluttered up
  the package directory (#1003).
• with_*() functions have moved into the withr package, and devtools
  functions have been deprecated (#925, @jimhester).

devtools 1.9.1

• Avoid importing heavy dependencies to speed up loading (#830, @krlmlr).
• Remove explicit library(testthat) call in test() (#798, @krlmlr).
• as.package() and load_all() gain new argument create. Like other
  functions with a pkg argument, load_all() looks for a DESCRIPTION file
  in parent directories - if create = TRUE it will be automatically
  created if there's a R/ or data/ directory (#852, @krlmlr).
• build_vignettes() gains dependencies argument (#825, @krlmlr).
• build_win() now uses curl instead of RCurl for ftp upload.
• check() now uses a better strategy when cran = TRUE. Instead of
  attempting to simulate --as-cran behaviour by turning on certain env vars,
  it now uses --as-cran and turns off problematic checks with env vars (#866).
  The problematic cran_env_vars() function has been removed.
• find_rtools() now looks for registry keys in both HKCU (user) and
  HKLM (admin) locations (@Kevin-Jin, #844)
• install() can now install dependencies from remote repositories by
  specifying them as Remotes in the DESCRIPTION file (#902, @jimhester).
  See vignette("dependencies") for more details.
• install_*() detects if called on a Bioconductor package and if so,
  automatically includes the Bioconductor repositories if needed (#895,
  @jimhester).
• install_deps() now automatically upgrades out of date dependencies. This
  is typically what you want when you're working on a development version of a
  package. To suppress this behaviour, set upgrade_dependencies = FALSE
  (#863). install_deps() is more careful with ... - this means additional
  arguments to install_* are more likely to work (#870).
• install_gitorious() has been removed since gitorious no longer exists
  (#913).
• load_all() no longer fails if a useDynLib() entry in the NAMESPACE
  is incorrect. This should make it easy to recover from an incorrect
  @useDynLib, because re-documenting() should now succeed.
• release() works for packages not located at root of git repository
  (#845, #846, @mbjones).
• revdep_check() now installs suggested packages by default (#808), and
  sets NOT_CRAN env var to false (#809). This makes testing more similar to
  CRAN so that more packages should pass cleanly. It also sets RGL_USE_NULL
  to true to stop rgl windows from popping up during testing (#897). It
  also downloads all source packages at the beginning - this makes life a
  bit easier if you're on a flaky internet connection (#906).
• New uninstall() removes installed package (#820, @krlmlr).
• Add use_coverage() function to add codecov.io or coveralls.io to a project,
  deprecate use_coveralls() (@jimhester, #822, #818).
• use_cran_badge() uses canonical url form preferred by CRAN.
• use_data() also works with data from the parent frame (#829, @krlmlr).
• use_git_hook() now creates .git/hooks if needed (#888)
• GitHub integration extended: use_github() gains a protocol argument (ssh or https), populates URL and BugReports fields of DESCRIPTION (only if non-existent or empty), pushes to the newly created GitHub repo, and sets a remote tracking branch. use_github_links() is a new exported function. dr_github() diagnoses more possible problems. (#642, @jennybc).
• use_travis(): Default travis script leaves notifications on default
  settings.
• uses_testthat() and check_failures() are now exported (#824, #839,
  @krlmlr).
• use_readme_rmd() uses uses_git() correctly (#793).
• with_debug() now uses with_makevars() rather than with_env(), because R
  reads compilation variables from the Makevars rather than the environment
  (@jimhester, #788).
• Properly reset library path after with_lib() (#836, @krlmlr).
• remove_s4classes() performs a topological sort of the classes
  (#848, #849, @famuvie).
• load_all() warns (instead of failing) if importing symbols, methods, or classes
  from NAMESPACE fails (@krlmlr, #921).

devtools 1.8.0

Helpers

• New dr_devtools() runs some common diagnostics: are you using the
  latest version of R and devtools? It is run automatically by
  release() (#592).
• use_code_of_conduct() adds a contributor code of conduct from
  http://contributor-covenant.org. (#729)
• use_coveralls() allows you to easily add test coverage with coveralls
  (@jimhester, #680, #681).
• use_git() sets up a package to use git, initialising the repo and
  checking the existing files.
• use_test() adds a new test file (#769, @krlmlr).
• New use_cran_badge() adds a CRAN status badge that you can copy into a README file. Green indicates package is on CRAN. Packages not yet submitted or accepted to CRAN get a red badge.

Package installation and info

• build_vignettes() automatically installs the VignetteBuilder package,
  if necessary (#736).
• install() and install_deps() gain a ... argument, so additional
  arguments can be passed to utils::install.packages() (@jimhester, #712).
  install_svn() optionally accepts a revision (@lev-kuznetsov, #739).
  install_version() now knows how to look in multiple repos (#721).
• package_deps() (and dev_package_deps()) determines all recursive
  dependencies and whether or not they're up-to-date (#663). Use
  update(package_deps("xyz")) to update out of date dependencies. This code
  is used in install_deps() and revdep_check() - it's slightly more
  aggressive than previous code (i.e. it forces you to use the latest version),
  which should avoid problems when you go to submit to CRAN.
• New update_packages() will install a package (and its dependencies) only if
  they are missing or out of date (#675).
• session_info() can now take a vector of package names, in which case it
  will print the version of those packages and their dependencies (#664).

Git and github

• Devtools now uses the git2r package to inspect git properties and install
  remote git packages with install_git(). This should be considerably
  more reliable than the previous strategy which involves calling the
  command line git client. It has two small downsides: install_git()
  no longer accepts additional args, and must do a deep clone when
  installing.
• dr_github() checks for common problems with git/github setup (#643).
• If you use git, release() now warns you if you have uncommited changes,
  or if you've forgotten to synchronise with the remote (#691).
• install_github() warns if repository contains submodules (@ashander, #751).

Bug fixes and minor improvements

• Previously, devtools ran all external R processes with R --vanilla.
  Now it only suppresses user profiles, and constructs a custom .Rprofile to
  override the default. Currently, this .Rprofile sets up the repos option.
  Among others, this enables the cyclic dependency check in devtools::release
  (#602, @krlmlr).
• R_BROWSER and R_PDFVIEWER environment variables are set to "false" to
  suppress random windows opening during checks.
• Devtools correctly identifies RTools 3.1 and 3.2 (#738), and
  preserves continuation lines in the DESCRIPTION (#709).
• dev_help() now uses normalizePath(). Hopefully this will make it more
  likely to work if you're on windows and have a space in the path.
• lint() gains a cache argument (@jimhester, #708).
• Fixed namespace issues related to stats::setNames() (#734, #772) and
  utils::unzip() (#761, @robertzk).
• release() now reminds you to check the existing CRAN check results page
  (#613) ands shows file size before uploading to CRAN (#683, @krlmlr).
• RCMD() and system_check() are now exported so they can be used by other
  packages. (@jimhester, #699).
• revdep_check() creates directories if needed (#759).
• system_check() combines arguments with , not, . (#753)
• test() gains an ... argument so that additional arguments can be passed
  to testthat::test_dir (@jimhester, #747)
• use_travis() now suggests you link to the svg icon since that looks a
  little sharper. Default template sets CRAN: http://cran.rstudio.com/ to
  enable the cyclic dependency check.
• NOT_CRAN envvar no longer overrides externally set variable.
• check(check_version = TRUE) also checks spelling of the DESCRIPTION; if no
  spell checker is installed, a warning is given (#784, @krlmlr).

Devtools 1.7.0

Improve reverse dependency checking

Devtools now supports a new and improved style of revdep checking with use_revdep(). This creates a new directory called revdep which contains a check.R template. Run this template to check all reverse dependencies, and save summarised results to check/summary.md. You can then check this file into git, making it much easier to track how reverse dependency results change between versions. The documentation for revdep_check() is much improved, and should be more useful (#635)

I recommend that you specify a library to use when checking with options("devtools.revdep.libpath"). (This should be a directory that already exists). This should be difference from your default library to keep the revdep environment isolated from your development environment.

I've also tweaked the output of revdep_maintainers() so it's easier to copy and paste into an email (#634). This makes life a little easier pre-release.

New helpers

• lint() runs lintr::lint_package() to check style consistency and errors
  in a package. (@jimhester, #694)
• use_appveyor() sets up a package for testing with AppVeyor (@krlmlr, #549).
• use_cran_comments() creates a cran-comments.md template and adds it
  to .Rbuildignore to help with CRAN submissions. (#661)
• use_git_hook() allows you to easily add a git hook to a package.
• use_readme_rmd() sets up a template to generate a README.md from a
  README.Rmd with knitr.

Minor improvements

• Deprecated doc_clean argument to check() has been removed.

• Initial package version in create() is now 0.0.0.9000 (#632).
  create() and create_description() checks that the package name is
  valid (#610).

• load_all() runs roxygen2::update_collate() before loading code. This
  ensures that files are sourced in the way you expect, as defined by
  roxygen @include tags. If you don't have any @include tags, the
  collate will be not be touched (#623).

• session_info() gains include_base argument to also display loaded/attached
  base packages (#646).

• release() no longer asks if you've read the CRAN policies since the
  CRAN submission process now asks the same question (#692).

  release(check = TRUE) now runs some additional custom checks. These include:

  • Checking that you don't depend on a development version of a package.

  • Checking that the version number has exactly three components (#633).

    release() now builds packages without the --no-manual switch, both for
    checking and for actually building the release package (#603, @krlmlr).
    build() gains an additional argument manual, defaulting to FALSE,
    and check() gains ... unmodified to build().

• use_travis() now sets an environment variable so that any WARNING will
  also cause the build to fail (#570).

• with_debug() and compiler_flags() set CFLAGS etc instead of
  PKG_CFLAGS. PKG_* are for packages to use, the raw values are for users
  to set. (According to http://cran.rstudio.com/doc/manuals/r-devel/R-exts.html#Using-Makevars)

• New setup() works like create() but assumes an existing, not necessarily
  empty, directory (#627, @krlmlr).

Bug fixes

• When installing a pull request, install_github() now uses the repository
  associated with the pull request's branch (and not the repository of the user
  who created the pull request) (#658, @krlmlr).
• missing_s3() works once again (#672)
• Fixed scoping issues with unzip().