R: Rprofile updated when new R version installed

Question

When I installed a new version of R, my customised.Rprofile is not loaded. The R GUI starts using the new version and its corresponding .Rprofile.

Is there a way to still using the customised regardless of any update in the R version? A follow up question would be, can an R package load a different .Rprofile?

csgillespie · Accepted Answer · 2016-04-20T09:48:17.037

3

You should read the help page ?.Rprofile

To summarise:

R first checks for a site-wide configuration file. To find that file, run

(site_path = R.home(component = "home"))
fname = file.path(site_path, "Rprofile.site")
file.exists(fname)

Then looks for .Rprofile in your current working directory - getwd()
```
fname = file.path(getwd(), ".Rprofile")
file.exists(fname)
```
Then looks for an .Rprofile in your home area.
```
file.exists("~/.Rprofile")
```

If you have an .Rprofile in you current working directory, R won't use the file in you home area.

Regarding your follow-up question. The .Rprofile is just an R file, so can be loaded via source and hence in a package. However, this is non-standard and should be avoided.

edited Apr 20 '16 at 09:48

answered Apr 20 '16 at 09:41

csgillespie

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thanks for your reply. True illustrative. so what you are saying is that -unless you change the configuration file- you will always need to create a new personalized Rprofile. – donpresente Apr 20 '16 at 11:01
1

When you say personalised, do you mean an Rprofile in your working directory – csgillespie Apr 20 '16 at 12:04
no. I mean one that i include code so it automatically load packages that i tend to use always. – donpresente Apr 20 '16 at 12:35
1

Don't put that in your .Rprofile. It makes you code non-portable. – csgillespie Apr 20 '16 at 12:55
Why? http://www.r-bloggers.com/fun-with-rprofile-and-customizing-r-startup/ is nice. Your answer continues being no, right? – donpresente Apr 20 '16 at 12:59
1

In the Rprofile you link to, there are no `library` or `require` calls, i.e. no packages are loaded. – csgillespie Apr 20 '16 at 13:05
Let us [continue this discussion in chat](http://chat.stackoverflow.com/rooms/109683/discussion-between-donpresente-and-csgillespie). – donpresente Apr 20 '16 at 13:11

R: Rprofile updated when new R version installed

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