R: Scripting Front-End for R

Rscript {utils} | R Documentation

## Scripting Front-End for R

### Description

This is an alternative front end for use in #! scripts and other scripting applications.

### Usage

    Rscript [options] [-e expr [-e expr2 ...] | file] [args]

### Arguments

`options` | a list of options, all beginning with --. These can be any of the options of the standard R front-end, and also those described in the details.
`expr, expr2` | R expression(s), properly quoted.
`file` | the name of a file containing R commands. - indicates ‘stdin’.
`args` | arguments to be passed to the script in `file`.

### Details

`Rscript --help` gives details of usage, and `Rscript --version` gives the version of `Rscript`.

Other invocations invoke the R front-end with selected options. This front-end is convenient for writing #! scripts since it is an executable and takes `file` directly as an argument. Options --no-echo --no-restore are always supplied: these imply --no-save. Arguments that contain spaces cannot be specified directly on the #! line, because spaces and tabs are interpreted as delimiters and there is no way to protect them from this interpretation on the #! line. (The standard Windows command line has no concept of #! scripts, but Cygwin shells do.)

Either one or more -e options or `file` should be supplied. When using -e options be aware of the quoting rules in the shell used: see the examples.

Additional options accepted (before `file` or `args`) are

--verbose

  gives details of what `Rscript` is doing. Also passed on to R.

--default-packages=list

  where `list` is a comma-separated list of package names or `NULL`. Sets the environment variable R_DEFAULT_PACKAGES which determines the packages loaded on startup.

Spaces are allowed in `expression` and `file` (but will need to be protected from the shell in use, if any, for example by enclosing the argument in quotes).

If --default-packages is not used, then `Rscript` checks the environment variable R_SCRIPT_DEFAULT_PACKAGES. If this is set, then it takes precedence over R_DEFAULT_PACKAGES.

The R files are found from the location of the ‘Rscript.exe’ executable. If this is copied elsewhere, the environment variable RHOME should be set to the top directory of the R installation.

Unlike Unix-alikes, this links directly to ‘R.dll’ rather than running a separate process.

`stdin()` refers to the input file, and `file("stdin")` to the `stdin` file stream of the process.

### Examples

    ## Not run:
    # Note that Rscript is not by default in the PATH on Windows, so
    # either put it there or use an explicit path to Rscript.

    # at the standard Windows command line
    Rscript -e "date()" -e "format(Sys.time(), \"%a %b %d %X %Y\")"
    # in other shells, e.g. bash or tcsh, prefer
    Rscript -e 'date()' -e 'format(Sys.time(), "%a %b %d %X %Y")'

    # Get the same initial packages in the same order as default R:
    Rscript --default-packages=methods,datasets,utils,grDevices,graphics,stats -e 'sessionInfo()'

    ## example #! script for a Unix-alike

    #! /path/to/Rscript --vanilla --default-packages=utils
    args <- commandArgs(TRUE)
    res <- try(install.packages(args))
    if(inherits(res, "try-error")) q(status=1) else q()

    ## End(Not run)

[Package utils version 4.0.5 Index]