R: Create or modify a DESCRIPTION file

use_description {usethis} | R Documentation

## Create or modify a DESCRIPTION file

### Description

usethis consults the following sources, in this order, to set DESCRIPTION fields:

- `fields` argument of `create_package()` or `use_description()`.

- `getOption("usethis.description")` or `getOption("devtools.desc")`. The devtools option is consulted only for backwards compatibility and it's recommended to switch to an option named "usethis.description".

- Defaults built into usethis.

The fields discovered via options or the usethis package can be viewed with `use_description_defaults()`.

If you create a lot of packages, consider storing personalized defaults as a named list in an option named `"usethis.description"`. Here's an example of code to include in `.Rprofile`:

    options(
      usethis.description = list(
        `Authors@R` = 'person("Jane", "Doe", email = "jane@example.com", role = c("aut", "cre"))',
        License = "MIT + file LICENSE",
        Language: es
      )
    )

### Usage

    use_description(fields = NULL)

    use_description_defaults()

### Arguments

`fields` | A named list of fields to add to DESCRIPTION, potentially overriding default values. See `use_description()` for how you can set personalized defaults using package options

### See Also

The description chapter of R Packages.

### Examples

    ## Not run:
    use_description()

    use_description(fields = list(Language = "es"))

    use_description_defaults()

    ## End(Not run)

[Package usethis version 1.4.0 Index]