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Create README files

Source: R/readme.R
use_readme_rmd.Rd

Creates skeleton README files with possible stubs for

  • a high-level description of the project/package and its goals

  • R code to install from GitHub, if GitHub usage detected

  • a basic example

Use Rmd if you want a rich intermingling of code and output. Use md for a basic README. README.Rmd will be automatically added to .Rbuildignore. The resulting README is populated with default YAML frontmatter and R fenced code blocks (md) or chunks (Rmd).

If you use Rmd, you'll still need to render it regularly, to keep README.md up-to-date. devtools::build_readme() is handy for this. You could also use GitHub Actions to re-render README.Rmd every time you push. An example workflow can be found in the examples/ directory here: https://github.com/r-lib/actions/.

If the current project is a Git repo, then use_readme_rmd() automatically configures a pre-commit hook that helps keep README.Rmd and README.md, synchronized. The hook creates friction if you try to commit when README.Rmd has been edited more recently than README.md. If this hook causes more problems than it solves for you, it is implemented in .git/hooks/pre-commit, which you can modify or even delete.

Usage

use_readme_rmd(open = rlang::is_interactive())

use_readme_md(open = rlang::is_interactive())

Arguments

open

Open the newly created file for editing? Happens in RStudio, if applicable, or via utils::file.edit() otherwise.

See also

The important files section of R Packages.

Examples

if (FALSE) {
use_readme_rmd()
use_readme_md()
}