---
name: "r"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "r-cran-littler"
version: "0.3.21-1"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/r"
---

# r(1)

Provides hash-bang (#!) capability for R (www.r-project.org)

## NAME

r - Provides hash-bang (#!) capability for R (www.r-project.org)

## SYNOPSIS

**r** \[*options*\] \[*-\|file*\] \[*R arguments*\]

## DESCRIPTION

Launches GNU R to execute the specified file containing R commands, or takes commands from stdin if '-' is used to denote stdin, using the specified options. This makes it suitable to create R scripts via the so-called shebang '#!/' line. The optional **R arguments** are stored in the  **R** vector **argv**.

## OPTIONS

- **-h**, **--help**

  Display a short help list.

- **--usage**

  Give a short usage message.

- **-V**, **--version**

  Show the version number.

- **-v**, **--vanilla**

  Pass the '--vanilla' option to R.

- **-t**, **--rtemp**

  Use a per-session temporary directory as R does.

- **-i**, **--interactive**

  Force 'interactive()' to evaluate to TRUE, whereas the default is FALSE.

- **-q**, **--quick**

  Skip autoload (i.e. delayed assign) of default libraries.

- **-p**, **--verbose**

  Print the value of expressions to the console.

- **-l**, **--packages** list

  Load the R packages from the comma-separated 'list'.

- **-d**, **--datastdin**

  Evaluates 'X \<- read.csv(file="stdin", stringsAsFactors=FALSE)' to read a data set from stdin.

- **-L**, **--libpath** dir

  Add directory to library path via '.libPaths(dir)'.

- **-e**, **--eval expr**

  Evaluate 'expr' in R.

## USAGE

**r** can be used in command-line 'pipes' as well as in 'shebang'-style scripts.

## ENVIRONMENT

When used with a shebang line in a script file, the path to that file is made available to **R** in the **LITTLER\_SCRIPT\_PATH** environment variable.

## EXAMPLES

Piping **R** commands:

 echo 'cat(pi^2,"\\n")' \| r

Equivalently, **R** commands can be given on the command-line:

 r -e 'cat(pi^2, "\\n")'

Alternatively, commands can be stored in a file, which in turn might use **R** command 'readLines' to process stdin input:

 $ cat examples/fsizes.r\
  fsizes \<- as.integer(readLines())\
  print(summary(fsizes))\
  stem(fsizes)

which can be evaluated by **r** with the following command:

 ls -l /boot \| awk '!/^total/ {print $5}' \| r examples/fsizes.r

The script file may contain a "shebang" line:

 $ cat examples/install.r\
  \#!/usr/bin/env r\
  \# a simple example to install one or more packages\
  if (is.null(argv) \| length(argv)\<1) {\
    cat("Usage: installr.r pkg1 \[pkg2 pkg3 ...\]0)\
    q()\
  }\
  repos \<- "http://cran.us.r-project.org"\
  lib.loc \<- "/usr/local/lib/R/site-library"\
  install.packages(argv, lib.loc, repos, dependencies=TRUE)

and if it is executable, it can be called as:

 examples/install.r "TeachingDemos"

See the examples directory in the sources for more.

## NOTE

The executable program is called  **r**, but the project is called **littler** to avoid confusion with the real **GNU R**.

## SEE ALSO

The  **GNU R** language is documented extensively at the R website (http://www.r-project.org) and in several manuals available in html, info and pdf.

## AUTHORS

Jeffrey Horner \<jeff.horner@vanderbilt.edu\>. Dirk Eddelbuettel \<edd@debian.org\>.