The R Installation Manager
Install, remove, configure R versions. Manage R packages and projects.
Features
Multiple R versions, side by side
- Install as many R versions as you like, and switch the default for the
terminal, RStudio and Positron.
- Select versions by symbolic name:
release, devel, next,
oldrel, or by exact version.
- Run several versions at the same time via quick links:
R-4.5 or
R-4.5.1 starts the matching R. Quick links are added to your path
automatically.
- List the versions you have installed, and the versions available to
install.
- On arm64 macs and Windows, choose between x86_64 and arm64 builds of
R, or install both.
Cross-platform and self-contained
- Works on macOS, Windows and Linux. Has native builds for many Linux
distributions, and
portable builds that run on any glibc- or musl-based Linux.
- A single standalone tool with no system requirements. Easy to install
and update on every platform.
- Two installation modes: the default admin
mode installs R system-wide (elevating to root/administrator only
when needed), while the newer user mode installs everything into
your home directory with no
sudo or administrator rights.
- On Linux, installs distro-specific builds where available, and
otherwise falls back to portable glibc/musl builds automatically.
Package management, set up for you
- Configures the default CRAN mirror and
P3M binary repositories.
- Installs pak and enables automatic system
requirements
installation.
- Creates and configures per-user package libraries.
rig repos manages package repositories across
all your R versions. Add your own CRAN-like repositories, e.g. an
internal CRAN mirror or an r-universe, and turn repositories on and
off for each R version. rig remembers the setup.rig pkg (experimental) installs, removes and lists
packages in a library, and looks up package info, dependencies and
dependency trees from the repositories, all without running R. It also
searches CRAN, and finds problems in a library, e.g. missing or too
old dependencies.- Installs packages from CRAN, Bioconductor (the release that belongs to
your R version), your own repositories and local paths, with version
constraints, e.g.
rig pkg install 'cli@=3.6.4'.
- On Linux,
rig pkg, rig proj and rig run install the system
requirements of R packages, or print the commands to install them if
rig cannot run them as root.
Project dependency management (experimental)
rig proj manages an R project through an
rproj.toml manifest: add or remove dependencies, resolve them with
rig’s built-in solver into an rproj.lock lockfile, and sync a
project library to match, all without running R.- Lock for several R versions and platforms at once, pin repositories
and Bioconductor releases, ignore package versions newer than a date
with
--exclude-newer, and upgrade only some packages while keeping
the rest pinned.
- Import a project from, or export it to, a
DESCRIPTION file or an
renv renv.lock file, to
interoperate with existing R package and project tooling.
- Inspect a project’s dependencies and dependency tree before
installing.
Run R, scripts and apps
rig run starts R, runs a script or expression, or launches an app:
Shiny apps, Plumber APIs, Quarto and R Markdown documents, and static
sites, with the R version you choose.- Self-contained scripts: declare the R version and the
packages a script needs in a
# /// script comment block, and
rig run installs them into the script’s own environment. Lock the
versions next to the script with rig proj lock --script.
- On Windows,
rig system script-assoc lets you run .R files directly
from cmd and PowerShell.
Platform niceties
- A macOS menu bar app shows the default R version and
lets you switch it interactively.
- Installs and configures the right Rtools versions on Windows, and
cleans up stale R entries from the Windows registry.
- Shell auto-completion for
zsh and bash on macOS and Linux, and for
PowerShell on Windows.
- On macOS, sets up R for debugging with
lldb and enables core dumps.
- JSON output for scripting, e.g. from
rig list, rig add and
rig rtools add, and a rig config command to manage rig’s own
configuration.
📖 Documentation
Full documentation is on the rig website: https://r-lib.github.io/rig/
Quick start:
rig add release # install the latest R release
rig list # list installed R versions
rig default 4.5.1 # set the default R version
🤝 Feedback
Please open an issue in our issue tracker at
https://github.com/r-lib/rig/issues
Sponsors
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📘 License
MIT 2021-2026 © Posit Software, PBC.
