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[R-pkg-devel] How to refer to COPYRIGHTS and AUTHORS extra files in DESCRIPTION

Thank you Ahmadou, Robert and G?bor,

In package 'presser'  G?bor used no dedicated AUTHORS file but use
'comment' and 'role' tag of Authors at R to mention their contribution and
refer to further comments in file (e.g.  inst/credits/redoc.md, src/md5.h)

Robert, also described a strategy using Authors at R

Ahmadou, used something similar to what I have done in the 'IFC' package I
want to submit on CRAN, with extra AUTHORS and COPYRIGHTS files found in
inst/ directory of its 'cgal4h' package. Then, he used "Author: file
inst/AUTHORS" and "Copyright: file inst/COPYRIGHTS" in DESCRIPTION file to
refer to these files.

In 'RcppMsgPack' package, I was using as an example in my 1st message,
extra AUTHORS and COPYRIGHTS files found in 'inst/' directory were also
used.
DESCRIPTION file contains:
- Author: Travers Ching and Dirk Eddelbuettel; the authors and contributors
of MsgPack
- Copyright: file inst/COPYRIGHTS

So, as far as I understand from your replies, there seems to be no general
rule on how to do it.
But it seems that when Author: or Copyright: is used in DESCRIPTION and
refer to a file then 'inst/' directory should be prepend to the file name
(e.g.  Copyright: file inst/COPYRIGHTS)

In next submission I will use in DESCRIPTION:
Authors at R and have a 'inst/AUTHORS' file
Copyright: file inst/COPYRIGHTS  and have a 'inst/COPYRIGHTS' file
Description: <the description of my 'IFC' package> + See file 'COPYRIGHTS'
and file 'AUTHORS' for a list of copyright holders and authors

Thanks a lot for your help,
Yohann

On Tue, Jul 7, 2020 at 7:56 PM Ahmadou Dicko <dicko.ahmadou at gmail.com>
wrote: