Using renv to manage R environment for reproducible coding

Published

Tuesday, August 8, 2023

Modified

Friday, September 8, 2023

R works by defaultly by installing packages to a central library and shares them between the projects. It sounds like a good and time-saving feature. After all, you don’t need to install the same package in every project. But that’s where the problems arise. You might have a newer version of some package than your coworkers – resulting in a deprecated or not-implemented functionality.

Install renv

pacman::p_load(renv)

renv create separate, reproducible environment that you and your coworkers can use, hassle free

This nice post introduced how to use it to manage dependencies in R projects easily

Remove renv

Deactivate renv in a project

renv::deactivate()

Remove auto loader .Rprofile, but doesn’t touch any other renv files used in the project.
To completely remove renv from a project, delete the project’s renv folder and renv.lock lockfile as desired.
If you want to completely remove any installed renv infrastructure components from your entire system

root <- renv::paths$root()
unlink(root, recursive = TRUE)
### Remove packages
utils::remove.packages("renv")

Reference

R renv: How to Manage Dependencies in R Projects Easily

---
title: "Using renv to manage R environment for reproducible coding"
date: 2023-08-08
date-modified: last-modified
categories:
  - r
  - renv
image: renv.png
---

R works by defaultly by installing packages to a central library and shares them between the projects. It sounds like a good and time-saving feature. After all, you don’t need to install the same package in every project. But that’s where the problems arise. You might have a newer version of some package than your coworkers – resulting in a deprecated or not-implemented functionality.

## Install renv
```r
pacman::p_load(renv)
```

![](renv.png)

`renv` create separate, reproducible environment that you and your coworkers can use, hassle free

This nice post introduced how to use it to manage dependencies in R projects easily

## Remove renv 

1. Deactivate `renv` in a project 
```R
renv::deactivate()
```
2. Remove auto loader `.Rprofile`, but doesn’t touch any other `renv` files used in the project.
3. To completely remove `renv` from a project, delete the project’s `renv` folder and `renv.lock` lockfile as desired.
4. If you want to completely remove any installed renv infrastructure components from your entire system

```R
root <- renv::paths$root()
unlink(root, recursive = TRUE)
### Remove packages
utils::remove.packages("renv")
```
## Reference

- [R renv: How to Manage Dependencies in R Projects Easily](https://appsilon.com/renv-how-to-manage-dependencies-in-r/)