Usethis: use_git() should make an initial commit, if necessary

[llrs]

TLDR:Use_git doesn't make the initial commit if the project is started already with git from Rstudio

I started a new package following the Rstudio new project > R package > git then I used some of the usethis functions to set up the package.

The history of command run is:

use_rstudio()
use_git()
use_mit_license()
use_testthat()
use_package("package")
desc::desc_normalize()
use_readme_rmd()
use_travis() # Error shown below
use_github()
use_coverage()
use_vignette("name")
?use_github
git_sitrep() # Sitrep shown below

However it failed:

Despite having correctly setup the git configuration, see the git_sitrep:

The problem comes from use_github, which expects to find a branch. But the branch is not created in use_git because Rstudio already created the repository and then use_git doesn't continue and commit the "Initial commit".

A solution would be to check if there is any committed file by checking the repository head. This involves the line https://github.com/r-lib/usethis/blob/9ffc27fd69934c74377fd3598489cebc50ef2680/R/git.R#L14.

Which could be adapted to check if there is any committed file or any branch.

[jennybc]

I'll be doing a lot of "git renovation" here, probably before the next CRAN release. So I'll deal with this then.

[llrs]

Great to hear that (I suppose that this is specially difficult for newcomers who are not sure which guidelines follow so I hope it can be fixed soon).

[hadley]

Minimal reprex:

library(usethis)
options(usethis.quiet = TRUE)

path <- create_package(tempfile())
proj_set(path)
git2r::init(proj_get())
#> Local:    /private/tmp/RtmpYSF5zd/file1414c75b8d944
#> Head:     nothing commited (yet)
use_git()
use_github()
#> Error: Detached head; can't continue

^{Created on 2020-03-14 by the reprex package (v0.3.0)}