Build package

Building converts a package source directory into a single bundled file. If binary = FALSE this creates a tar.gz package that can be installed on any platform, provided they have a full development environment (although packages without source code can typically be installed out of the box). If binary = TRUE, the package will have a platform specific extension (e.g. .zip for windows), and will only be installable on the current platform, but no development environment is needed.

Usage

build(
  path = ".",
  dest_path = NULL,
  binary = FALSE,
  vignettes = TRUE,
  manual = FALSE,
  clean_doc = NULL,
  args = NULL,
  quiet = FALSE,
  needs_compilation = pkg_has_src(path),
  compile_attributes = FALSE,
  register_routines = FALSE
)

Arguments

path: Path to a package, or within a package.
dest_path: path in which to produce package. If it is an existing directory, then the output file is placed in dest_path and named according to the current R conversions (e.g. .zip for Windows binary packages, .tgz for macOS binary packages, etc). If it is an existing file, then it will be overwritten. If dest_path does not exist, then it is used as a file name. If NULL, it defaults to the parent directory of the package.
binary: Produce a binary (--binary) or source ( --no-manual --no-resave-data) version of the package.
vignettes, manual: For source packages: if FALSE, don't build PDF vignettes (--no-build-vignettes) or manual (--no-manual).
clean_doc: If TRUE, clean the files in inst/doc before building the package. If NULL and the Config/build/clean-inst-doc entry is present in DESCRIPTION, then that is used. Otherwise, if NULL, and interactive, ask to remove the files prior to cleaning. In most cases cleaning the files is the correct behavior to avoid stale vignette outputs in the built package.
args: An optional character vector of additional command line arguments to be passed to R CMD build if binary = FALSE, or R CMD install if binary = TRUE.
quiet: if TRUE suppresses output from this function.
needs_compilation: Usually only needed if the packages has C/C++/Fortran code. By default this is autodetected.
compile_attributes: if TRUE and the package uses Rcpp, call Rcpp::compileAttributes() before building the package. It is ignored if package does not need compilation.
register_routines: if TRUE and the package does not use Rcpp, call register routines with tools::package_native_routine_registration_skeleton() before building the package. It is ignored if package does not need compilation.

Value

a string giving the location (including file name) of the built package

Details

Configuration

`DESCRIPTION` entries

Config/build/clean-inst-doc can be set to FALSE to avoid cleaning up inst/doc when building a source package. Set it to TRUE to force a cleanup. See the clean_doc argument.
Config/build/copy-method can be used to avoid copying large directories in R CMD build. It works by copying (or linking) the files of the package to a temporary directory, leaving out the (possibly large) files that are not part of the package. Possible values:
- none: pkgbuild does not copy the package tree. This is the default.
- copy: the package files are copied to a temporary directory before R CMD build.
- link: the package files are symbolic linked to a temporary directory before R CMD build. Windows does not have symbolic links, so on Windows this is equivalent to copy.
You can also use the pkg.build_copy_method option or the PKG_BUILD_COPY_METHOD environment variable to set the copy method. The option is consulted first, then the DESCRIPTION entry, then the environment variable.

Options

pkg.build_copy_method: use this option to avoid copying large directories when building a package. See possible values above, at the Config/build/copy-method DESCRIPTION entry.
pkg.build_stop_for_warnings: if it is set to TRUE, then pkgbuild will stop for R CMD build errors. It takes precedence over the PKG_BUILD_STOP_FOR_WARNINGS environment variable.

Environment variables

PKG_BUILD_COLOR_DIAGNOSTICS: set it to false to opt out of colored compiler diagnostics. Set it to true to force colored compiler diagnostics.
PKG_BUILD_COPY_METHOD: use this environment variable to avoid copying large directories when building a package. See possible values above, at the Config/build/copy-method DESCRIPTION entry.

will stop for R CMD build errors. The pkg.build_stop_for_warnings option takes precedence over this environment variable.