tinyrox

Minimal R documentation generator - base R only, no magic.

What it does

tinyrox is a lightweight alternative to roxygen2 that generates valid .Rd files and NAMESPACE from #' comments using only base R.

Installation

install.packages("tinyrox")

Usage

library(tinyrox)

# Generate man/*.Rd and NAMESPACE from R/*.R
document()

# Clean generated files (man/, NAMESPACE)
clean()

# Check for common CRAN policy issues
check_cran()

Supported Tags

Documentation

Tag	Purpose
@title	One-line title
@description	Short description
@details	Longer description
@param name	Parameter documentation
@return	Return value
@value	Alias for @return
@examples	Code examples (verbatim)
@seealso	Cross-references
@references	Citations
@section Title:	Custom section (package-level docs only)
@author	Accepted for roxygen2 compatibility; ignored (authors come from DESCRIPTION)
@aliases	Additional topic aliases
@keywords	Rd keywords (e.g., internal)
@name	Explicit topic name
@rdname	Group multiple blocks into one Rd file
@inheritParams fn	Copy params from another function
@noRd	Skip Rd generation

Namespace

Tag	Effect
@export	export()
@exportS3Method generic class	S3method()
@import pkg	import()
@importFrom pkg sym1 sym2	importFrom()
@useDynLib pkg	useDynLib()

Example

#' Add Two Numbers
#'
#' @param x First number
#' @param y Second number
#' @return The sum
#' @export
#'
#' @examples
#' add(1, 2)
add <- function(x, y) {
  x + y
}

Package-Level Documentation

Attach a block to the "_PACKAGE" sentinel (same convention as roxygen2) to generate a ?pkgname landing topic:

#' mypkg: One-Line Title
#'
#' This paragraph is ignored; the help page pulls the description from
#' DESCRIPTION instead (see below).
#'
#' Paragraphs three and beyond (or @details) become the details
#' section: design notes, limitations, getting-started prose.
#' @keywords internal
"_PACKAGE"

This writes man/mypkg-package.Rd with package docType and aliases for mypkg and mypkg-package, so ?mypkg resolves. Title, description, author, and maintainer come from DESCRIPTION at render time via the base-R Rd macros (\packageTitle{}, \packageDescription{}, \packageAuthor{}, \packageMaintainer{}). DESCRIPTION stays the single source of truth, and the block's title and description paragraphs are not copied into the Rd. A function index is generated with \packageIndices{}. The sentinel is not exported and adds nothing to NAMESPACE.

CRAN Compliance Checking

tinyrox includes automated CRAN compliance checks:

# Check R code for CRAN policy violations
check_code_cran()
# Warns about: T/F, print()/cat(), .GlobalEnv, installed.packages(), etc.

# Check exported functions for missing examples and \dontrun overuse
check_examples_cran()

# Run all checks (code + examples)
check_cran()

Issues detected:

• T/F instead of TRUE/FALSE
• print()/cat() instead of message()
• installed.packages() usage
• .GlobalEnv modifications
• setwd() without on.exit() restoration
• Hardcoded set.seed() without parameter
• Exported functions without examples; \dontrun{} overuse

Philosophy

tinyrox follows the tinyverse philosophy:

Dependencies have real costs. Each dependency is an invitation to break your project.

Design principles:

• Minimize dependencies (tinyrox has none)
• Explicit over implicit - no inference magic
• Strict subset of tags - not everything roxygen2 does
• Deterministic output - same input = same output
• Warn and skip unknown tags (roxygen2 behavior), never abort the run

What tinyrox does NOT do:

• Markdown parsing
• Automatic dependency inference
• @family (use @seealso)
• pkgdown integration

Development Workflow

tinyrox is part of the tinyverse toolchain for R package development:

Package	Purpose
tinyrox	Documentation & NAMESPACE
tinypkgr	install, load_all, check, build
tinytest	Unit testing
rformat	Token-based code formatter

# Edit R/*.R files with #' comments

# Regenerate docs
tinyrox::document()

# Load for interactive development (no install)
tinypkgr::load_all()

# Install and reload in current session
tinypkgr::reload()
tinytest::test_package("mypkg")

# Full R CMD check
tinypkgr::check()

Or from the command line with littler:

r -e 'tinyrox::document(); tinypkgr::install(); tinytest::test_package("mypkg")'

License

GPL-3