create_package() is giving errors about malformed line

[setgree]

what I'm trying to do

Follow the directions in https://r-pkgs.org/whole-game.html

what's happening

> usethis::create_package(path = "~/Desktop/regexcite")
✔ Setting active project to '/Users/[username]/Desktop/regexcite'
Error in read.dcf(con) : 
  Line starting 'c("aut", "cre"), ...' is malformed!
✔ Setting active project to '<no active project>'

This happens in many subdirectories and with many package names.

what I'm looking for

some sense of what's causing this error? I don't see, in this package's internals, what function is being called that creates this message. The folder regexcite is being created, as is the subdirectory R, but no .Rproj or anything else.

Is it a problem with putting it in a subfolder?

session info

> session_info()
─ Session info ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 setting  value
 version  R version 4.3.1 (2023-06-16)
 os       macOS Sonoma 14.1.2
 system   x86_64, darwin20
 ui       RStudio
 language (EN)
 collate  en_US.UTF-8
 ctype    en_US.UTF-8
 tz       America/New_York
 date     2024-01-02
 rstudio  2023.12.0+369 Ocean Storm (desktop)
 pandoc   3.1.11 @ /usr/local/bin/pandoc

─ Packages ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 package     * version date (UTC) lib source
 cachem        1.0.8   2023-05-01 [1] CRAN (R 4.3.0)
 cli           3.6.2   2023-12-11 [1] CRAN (R 4.3.0)
 crayon        1.5.2   2022-09-29 [1] CRAN (R 4.3.0)
 desc          1.4.3   2023-12-10 [1] CRAN (R 4.3.0)
 devtools    * 2.4.5   2022-10-11 [1] CRAN (R 4.3.0)
 digest        0.6.33  2023-07-07 [1] CRAN (R 4.3.0)
 ellipsis      0.3.2   2021-04-29 [1] CRAN (R 4.3.0)
 fansi         1.0.6   2023-12-08 [1] CRAN (R 4.3.0)
 fastmap       1.1.1   2023-02-24 [1] CRAN (R 4.3.0)
 fs            1.6.3   2023-07-20 [1] CRAN (R 4.3.0)
 glue          1.6.2   2022-02-24 [1] CRAN (R 4.3.0)
 htmltools     0.5.7   2023-11-03 [1] CRAN (R 4.3.0)
 htmlwidgets   1.6.4   2023-12-06 [1] CRAN (R 4.3.0)
 httpuv        1.6.13  2023-12-06 [1] CRAN (R 4.3.0)
 knitr         1.45    2023-10-30 [1] CRAN (R 4.3.0)
 later         1.3.2   2023-12-06 [1] CRAN (R 4.3.0)
 lifecycle     1.0.4   2023-11-07 [1] CRAN (R 4.3.0)
 magrittr      2.0.3   2022-03-30 [1] CRAN (R 4.3.0)
 memoise       2.0.1   2021-11-26 [1] CRAN (R 4.3.0)
 mime          0.12    2021-09-28 [1] CRAN (R 4.3.0)
 miniUI        0.1.1.1 2018-05-18 [1] CRAN (R 4.3.1)
 pillar        1.9.0   2023-03-22 [1] CRAN (R 4.3.0)
 pkgbuild      1.4.3   2023-12-10 [1] CRAN (R 4.3.0)
 pkgconfig     2.0.3   2019-09-22 [1] CRAN (R 4.3.0)
 pkgload       1.3.3   2023-09-22 [1] CRAN (R 4.3.0)
 profvis       0.3.8   2023-05-02 [1] CRAN (R 4.3.0)
 promises      1.2.1   2023-08-10 [1] CRAN (R 4.3.0)
 purrr         1.0.2   2023-08-10 [1] CRAN (R 4.3.0)
 R6            2.5.1   2021-08-19 [1] CRAN (R 4.3.0)
 Rcpp          1.0.11  2023-07-06 [1] CRAN (R 4.3.0)
 remotes       2.4.2.1 2023-07-18 [1] CRAN (R 4.3.0)
 rlang         1.1.2   2023-11-04 [1] CRAN (R 4.3.0)
 roxygen2      7.2.3   2022-12-08 [1] CRAN (R 4.3.0)
 rprojroot     2.0.4   2023-11-05 [1] CRAN (R 4.3.0)
 rstudioapi    0.15.0  2023-07-07 [1] CRAN (R 4.3.0)
 sessioninfo   1.2.2   2021-12-06 [1] CRAN (R 4.3.0)
 shiny         1.8.0   2023-11-17 [1] CRAN (R 4.3.0)
 stringi       1.8.3   2023-12-11 [1] CRAN (R 4.3.0)
 stringr       1.5.1   2023-11-14 [1] CRAN (R 4.3.0)
 tibble        3.2.1   2023-03-20 [1] CRAN (R 4.3.0)
 urlchecker    1.0.1   2021-11-30 [1] CRAN (R 4.3.0)
 usethis     * 2.2.2   2023-07-06 [1] CRAN (R 4.3.0)
 utf8          1.2.4   2023-10-22 [1] CRAN (R 4.3.0)
 vctrs         0.6.5   2023-12-01 [1] CRAN (R 4.3.0)
 withr         2.5.2   2023-10-30 [1] CRAN (R 4.3.0)
 xfun          0.41    2023-11-01 [1] CRAN (R 4.3.0)
 xml2          1.3.6   2023-12-04 [1] CRAN (R 4.3.0)
 xtable        1.8-4   2019-04-21 [1] CRAN (R 4.3.0)

 [1] /Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Versions/4.3-x86_64/Resources/library

[setgree]

I fixed it by editing my .Rprofile. I deciphered the error message after thinking about it for a while but overall, I think the messaging could be clearer. Thanks!