Packrat commands

The following is a list of the R functions in the packrat package that you’ll use most often. You can find more detailed documentation by typing help(package="packrat") at the R console.

For more background on how these commands fit into the packrat workflow, see the walkthrough.

Main Functionality

• packrat::init(): Initializes the current working directory as a Packrat project.

When you want to manage the state of your private library, you can use the Packrat functions:

• packrat::snapshot(): Save the current state of your library.
• packrat::restore(): Restore the library state saved in the most recent snapshot.
• packrat::clean(): Remove unused packages from your library.

Share a Packrat project with bundle and unbundle:

• packrat::bundle(): Bundle a packrat project, for easy sharing.
• packrat::unbundle(): Unbundle a packrat project, generating a project directory with libraries restored.

Navigate projects with:

• packrat::on(), packrat::off(): Toggle packrat mode on and off, for navigating between projects within a single R session.

Options

Packrat project-specific options can be accessed and set with:

• packrat::get_opts(): Get project options for the current packrat project.
• packrat::set_opts(): Set project options for the current packrat project.
• packrat::opts$<option>(): Get / set a project option <option>.

The current set of available options is:

auto.snapshot

Perform automatic, asynchronous snapshots when running interactively? (TRUE / FALSE; defaults to TRUE)

use.cache

Install packages into a global cache, which is then shared across projects? By default, an OS-specific application data directory is used, but this can be overridden with the R_PACKRAT_CACHE_DIR environment variable.

print.banner.on.startup

Print the banner on startup? Can be one of TRUE (always print), FALSE (never print), and ‘auto` (do the right thing).

vcs.ignore.lib

Add the packrat private library to your version control system ignore? (TRUE / FALSE; defaults to TRUE)

vcs.ignore.src

Add the packrat private sources to your version control system ignore? (TRUE / FALSE; defaults to FALSE)

external.packages

Packages which should be loaded from the user library upon entering packrat mode. This can be useful for very large packages which you don’t want duplicated across multiple projects, e.g. Bioconductor annotation packages.

local.repos

Local ‘repositories’; i.e., directories containing package sources either as folders or as package tarballs. (Character vector; empty by default)

Utilities

There are also utility functions for using and managing packages in the external / user library, and can be useful for leveraging packages in the user library that you might not want as project-specific dependencies, e.g. devtools, knitr, roxygen2:

• packrat::extlib(): Load an external package.
• packrat::with_extlib(): With an external package, evaluate an expression. The external package is loaded only for the duration of the evaluated expression.