create() in existing directory

[krlmlr]

Desired workflow:

git init new.package
cd new.package
Rscript -e "devtools::create()"

Currently yields:

Creating package new.package in ...
Error: Directory already exists

Suggestion: Creation should silently work when the directory is empty except for a .git subdirectory.

[gaborcsardi]

This is what I usually do:

Rscript -e 'devtools::create("newpackage")'
cd newpackage
git init .
git add .
git commit -m 'Initial commit, after devtools::create()'
...

This seems to be about the same amount of typing.

[krlmlr]

No doubt. It just hurts when you try to do it the other way round. Related: #593.

[mbojan]

I think it might be useful, e.g. if you clone an (almost) empty repository to create a package there. For example, when you clone a GitHub repository containing only README.md

[hadley]

create() is designed to be a first step, not a second. I think you should either adopt the standard devtools workflow, or submit a PR that implements a new function (extracting out most of the code from create()).

[krlmlr]

Before submitting a PR, I wanted to hear opinions. Personally, I think that tools should adopt to workflows, not the other way round.

I'd like to look further into this issue. What would be a good name for the new function?