WHat is the difference between RSTUDIO_USER_IDENTITY and USER environment variables in RStudio

Question

Sys.getenv returns RSTUDIO_USER_IDENTITY and USER environment variables. Does anyone have an explanation of what these environment variables do?

Answer 1

USER is a system environment variable unrelated to RStudio. It's what you should use to pick up the current system username (i.e the username of the user running the R session).

RSTUDIO_USER_IDENTITY is generally the same as USER, though it can differ in debug configurations. You probably want to use USER unless you have a very specific reason to do otherwise.