Capture and re-use dependencies within a .R or .Rmd

Together, embed() and use() provide a lightweight way to specify and restore package versions within a file. use() is a lightweight lockfile specification that embed() can automatically generate and insert into a script or document.

Calling embed() inspects the dependencies of the specified document then generates and inserts a call to use() that looks something like this:

renv::use(
  "digest@0.6.30",
  "rlang@0.3.4"
)

Then, when you next run your R script or render your .Rmd, use() will:

Create a temporary library path.
Install the requested packages and their recursive dependencies into that library.
Activate the library, so it's used for the rest of the script.

Manual usage

You can also create calls to use() yourself, either specifying the packages needed by hand, or by supplying the path to a lockfile, renv::use(lockfile = "/path/to/renv.lock").

This can be useful in projects where you'd like to associate different lockfiles with different documents, as in a blog where you want each post to capture the dependencies at the time of writing. Once you've finished writing each, the post, you can use renv::snapshot(lockfile = "/path/to/renv.lock") to "save" the state that was active while authoring that bost, and then use renv::use(lockfile = "/path/to/renv.lock") in that document to ensure the blog post always uses those dependencies onfuture renders.

renv::use() is inspired in part by the groundhog package, which also allows one to specify a script's R package requirements within that same R script.

Usage

embed(path = NULL, ..., lockfile = NULL, project = NULL)

use(
  ...,
  lockfile = NULL,
  library = NULL,
  isolate = sandbox,
  sandbox = TRUE,
  attach = FALSE,
  verbose = TRUE
)

Arguments

path: The path to an R or R Markdown script. The default will use the current document, if running within RStudio.
...: The R packages to be used with this script. Ignored if lockfile is non-NULL.
lockfile: The lockfile to use. When supplied, renv will use the packages as declared in the lockfile.
project: The project directory. If NULL, then the active project will be used. If no project is currently active, then the current working directory is used instead.
library: The library path into which the requested packages should be installed. When NULL (the default), a library path within the R temporary directory will be generated and used. Note that this same library path will be re-used on future calls to renv::use(), allowing renv::use() to be used multiple times within a single script.
isolate: Boolean; should the active library paths be included in the set of library paths activated for this script? Set this to TRUE if you only want the packages provided to renv::use() to be visible on the library paths.
sandbox: Should the system library be sandboxed? See the sandbox documentation in config for more details. You can also provide an explicit sandbox path if you want to configure where renv::use() generates its sandbox. By default, the sandbox is generated within the R temporary directory.
attach: Boolean; should the set of requested packages be automatically attached? If TRUE, packages will be loaded and attached via a call to library() after install. Ignored if lockfile is non-NULL.
verbose: Boolean; be verbose while installing packages?

Value

This function is normally called for its side effects.