[R] Setting up a .Rprofile file

[Enrico Schumann]

On Fri, 24 Mar 2017, Bruce Ratner PhD writes:

> Henrico:
> Thanks for quick reply.
> However, one last question:
> If I want to change working directory, and put setwd() in the Rprofile
> file, logically R will not know where the be work directory is,
> correct?
>
> So, should I install R in my preferred working directory?
>
> Thanks again, in advance. 
> Bruce
>

Hm, I think I don't understand what you mean here. Where R
is installed and where it is run are (usually) not the same
places.

Let $ be a shell prompt, and let > be the R
prompt. Then:

  $ cd /tmp/
  $ R -q
  > getwd()
  [1] "/tmp"
  > q("no")
  $ cd ~/Documents/
  $ R -q
  > getwd()
  [1] "~/Documents"

Now I write into my "~./Rprofile" file:

  setwd("~/Downloads")

$ cd /tmp/
$ R -q
> getwd()
[1] "~/Downloads"


But maybe I am completely misunderstanding what you
mean....

Kind regards
     Enrico


>
>
>> On Mar 24, 2017, at 3:48 AM, Enrico Schumann <es at enricoschumann.net> wrote:
>> 
>> On Thu, 23 Mar 2017, Bruce Ratner PhD writes:
>> 
>>> Hi R'ers:
>>> I would like to setting up a .Rprofile file with
>>> setwd("C:/R_WorkDir")
>>> set.seed(12345)
>>> options (prompt "> R ")
>>> 
>>> ---
>>> Can you help providing the code or instructive link,
>>> I've find many links, but I can't figure it out?
>>> 
>>> Thanks.
>>> Bruce 
>>> 
>> 
>> Quoting from ?Startup:
>> 
>> ,----
>> | [...] unless ‘--no-init-file’ was given, R searches
>> | for a user profile, a file of R code.  The path of
>> | this file can be specified by the ‘R_PROFILE_USER’
>> | environment variable (and tilde expansion will be
>> | performed).  If this is unset, a file called
>> | ‘.Rprofile’ is searched for in the current directory
>> | or in the user's home directory (in that order).  The
>> | user profile file is sourced into the workspace.
>> `----
>> 

-- 
Enrico Schumann
Lucerne, Switzerland
http://enricoschumann.net