devtag

{devtag} allows you to use @dev tags in your roxygen2 headers so you’ll generate help files for unexported objects, that you will enjoy during development but won’t be accessible for users that install your package.

This is done by adding the relevant help files to “.Rbuildignore” when documenting the package with {roxygen2} (usually through devtools::document())

These files are not git ignored so they are version-controlled and shared with contributors of your repo.

Installation

Install with

pak::pak("moodymudskipper/devtag")

How to use

To use {devtag} :

1. Use “@dev” for unexported functions where you would have used “@export” for exported functions. Do not use “@rdname”.

2. Run devtag::use_devtag() in your package folder. This will amend the DESCRIPTION to activate devtag usage.

3. That’s it! Note that to check that it works you’ll need to use devtools::install(), clicking the Install button in the build pane will still install the build ignored help files with the package (not really a bad thing on your machine anyway).

Example package

We set up the package {devtag.example} as an example. You can check the code at https://github.com/moodymudskipper/devtag.example

If you install it you won’t be able to see the help file for the subtract() function, but if you clone it and use a {devtools} workflow you will had access to it.

Comparison to @noRd and @keywords internal

• @noRd doesn’t produce help files, it basically makes your roxygen2 blocks regular comments that look like regular documentation
• @keywords internal removes help files from the index but they are still accessible by users