Building package/DESCRIPTION file not existing?

Francois Rousseu <francoisrousseu at hotmail.com>
    on Mon, 24 Oct 2011 20:10:27 -0400 writes:

> Hello useRs
 
    > I am trying to build a package for personal use and for
    > making easier working with other people but I keep getting
    > the same error message about the DESCRIPTION file not
    > existing.
 
    > when trying to install from a source tar.gz file:
 
    > Error in .read_description(dfile) : file
    > 'C:/Users/Propri?taire/AppData/Local/Temp/RtmpHFMONb/R.INSTALL647a3535/mypkg/DESCRIPTION'
    > does not exist
 
    > when trying to build a binary version:
 
    > Error in .read_description(dfile) : file
    > 'C:/Users/Propri?taire/Documents/RETROBIRD/mypkg/DESCRIPTION'
    > does not exist

    > In this last case, the DESCRIPTION file is certainly
    > there! Also, help and DESCRIPTION files are edited and my
    > path variable seems to be set correctly as I can access R
    > and tex (form miktex 2.9) from the console. I feel it
    > might be related to language issues (windows on my system
    > is in french, see sessionInfo() at bottom of message) or
    > something about temporary directories, but I really can't
    > find the problem. I've looked into the cygwin warning, but
    > it didn't seemed to be the problem, though I may be wrong.

Yes, I'm almost sure it's the "language issues".

I've recently taught a course on  R Package building
and on Windows, the user had problems because of an  '??'
(a-Umlaut) in one of the directories in her 'path'.

So if you work from another place than
'C:/Users/Propri?taire/'  this may solve the main problem.

Bonnes salutations,
Martin Maechler, ETH Zurich
 
    > Any hints? Below is the complete sequence with errors.
 
    > Thanks, Francois Rousseu
 
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