Difficulty using usethis::use_github()

jdblischak · March 5, 2018, 4:11pm

@jmichaelrosenberg There are multiple tasks being performed by usethis::use_github(). One task is creating the new repository on GitHub. This step relies on the gh package and your personal access token. The step succeeded as evidenced by the empty GitHub repo you now have.

github.com

r-lib/usethis/blob/7d1c255f7983b2bcda050e74b73f3d830b3a79da/R/github.R#L99


      
            code_block(
              paste0("Name:        ", repo_name),
              paste0("Description: ", repo_desc),
              copy = FALSE
            )
          }
          
          done("Creating GitHub repository")
          
          if (is.null(organisation)) {
            create <- gh::gh(
              "POST /user/repos",
              name = repo_name,
              description = repo_desc,
              private = private,
              .api_url = host,
              .token = auth_token
            )
          } else {
            create <- gh::gh(
              "POST /orgs/:org/repos",

The step that failed was attempting to push your local Git changes to GitHub (which is why the GitHub repo is still empty). That step relies on git2r and the system libraries it uses to push and pull from remote repositories like GitHub.

github.com

r-lib/usethis/blob/7d1c255f7983b2bcda050e74b73f3d830b3a79da/R/github.R#L146


      
          
            done("Pushing to GitHub and setting remote tracking branch")
            if (protocol == "ssh") {
              ## [1] push via ssh required for success setting remote tracking branch
              ## [2] to get passphrase from ssh-agent, you must use NULL credentials
              git2r::push(r, "origin", "refs/heads/master", credentials = credentials)
            } else { ## protocol == "https"
              ## in https case, when GITHUB_PAT is passed as password,
              ## the username is immaterial, but git2r doesn't know that
              cred <- git2r::cred_user_pass("EMAIL", auth_token)
              git2r::push(r, "origin", "refs/heads/master", credentials = cred)
            }
            ## utils::head instead of git2r::head due to the conversion of git2r's head
            ## from S4 --> S3 method in v0.21.0 --> 0.21.0.9000
            git2r::branch_set_upstream(utils::head(r), "origin/master")
          
            view_url(create$html_url)
          
            invisible(NULL)
          }

As @jennybryan mentioned, this step can fail for all kinds of reasons. Since you only need to do this step once to get your repository setup, I'd recommend opening a Terminal (in RStudio: Tools -> Terminal -> New Terminal), and typing git push origin master. This will allow you to continue working on your project.