R(1)

📦
version 4.6.1 · 21 versions
, in epel 10, epel 9, fedora 44

💅 R(1) — the manual page, bestie edition ✨

okay so like — this is the R(1) man page, the general manual for R on Unix-y systems, and I'm gonna walk you through every single bit of it. no skipping, no "you'll figure it out", we're doing the whole thing. grab a snack 🍓

🌸 NAME 🌸

R — a language for data analysis and graphics. that's the whole vibe. it does stats, it does plots, it's a whole language. periodt.

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

R [options] [< infile] [> outfile]
R CMD command [arguments]

two whole modes, bestie. either you're launching R straight up with options (and maybe piping in an infile / piping out to an outfile), or you're going through the R CMD interface to poke at one of the tools. pick your fighter 💅

✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

so you start R — a system for statistical computation and graphics — with whatever options you specified. or you invoke an R tool through that 'R CMD' interface. both valid, both iconic.

R is a language that bears a passing resemblance to the S language developed at AT&T Bell Laboratories 👑 (yes, that AT&T Bell Labs, iykyk). it's got support for a whole variety of statistical and graphical analyses. and ngl, R is a true computer language — it's got a bunch of control-flow constructions for iteration and alternation, like, actual programming constructs, not just a calculator with delusions of grandeur. and you can add your own functionality by defining new functions, which is honestly the best part 🫶

on systems that have the GNU readline(3) library, R will maintain a command history — so you can recall, edit, and re-execute your commands. no more retyping the whole thing because of one typo. a blessing. 😭

🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

most of these control what happens at the beginning and at the end of an R session — in particular which files are being read and written, and how much memory gets reserved for the R process. so like, bookkeeping stuff, but important bookkeeping stuff.

  • -h, --help — print a short help message and exit. bye 👋
  • --version — print version info and exit
  • --encoding=ENC — specify the encoding to be used for stdin
  • --encoding ENC — same thing, space-separated flavor ✨
  • RHOME — print the path to the R home directory and exit
  • --save — do save the workspace at the end of the session
  • --no-save — don't save it 🙈
  • --no-environ — don't read the site and user environment files
  • --no-site-file — don't read the site-wide Rprofile
  • --no-init-file — don't read the user R profile
  • --restore — do restore previously saved objects at startup
  • --no-restore-data — don't restore previously saved objects
  • --no-restore-history — don't restore the R history file
  • --no-restore — don't restore anything. scorched earth 💀
  • --vanilla — combine --no-save, --no-restore, --no-site-file, --no-init-file and --no-environ. it's the "just give me a clean slate" bundle 🧚
  • --no-readline — don't use readline for command-line editing
  • --max-connections=N — set max number of connections to N
  • --max-ppsize=N — set max size of the protect stack to N
  • --min-nsize=N — set min number of fixed size obj's ("cons cells") to N
  • --min-vsize=N — set the vector heap minimum to N bytes; '4M' = 4 MegaB
  • -q, --quiet — don't print the startup message
  • --silent — same as --quiet
  • -s, --no-echo — make R run as quietly as possible
  • --interactive — force an interactive session
  • --verbose — print more information about progress 👀
  • -d, --debugger=NAME — run R through debugger NAME
  • --debugger-args=ARGS — pass ARGS as arguments to the debugger
  • -g TYPE, --gui=TYPE — use TYPE as the GUI; possible values are 'X11' (default) and 'Tk'
  • --arch=NAME — specify a sub-architecture
  • --args — skip the rest of the command line
  • -f FILE, --file=FILE — take input from 'FILE'
  • -e EXPR — execute 'EXPR' and exit
heads up bestie: FILE may contain spaces but not shell metacharacters. so spaces = fine, shell weirdness = not fine 🚫

🌈 Commands: 🌈

these are the R CMD tools, the little sidekicks:

  • BATCH — run R in batch mode
  • COMPILE — compile files for use with R
  • SHLIB — build a shared library for dynamic loading
  • INSTALL — install add-on packages
  • REMOVE — remove add-on packages
  • build — build add-on packages
  • check — check add-on packages
  • LINK — front-end for creating executable programs
  • Rprof — post-process R profiling files
  • Rdconv — convert Rd format to various other formats
  • Rd2pdf — convert Rd format to PDF
  • Rd2txt — convert Rd format to pretty text
  • Stangle — extract S/R code from Sweave documentation
  • Sweave — process Sweave documentation
  • Rdiff — diff R output ignoring headers etc
  • config — obtain configuration information about R
  • javareconf — update the Java configuration variables
  • rtags — create Emacs-style tag files from C, R, and Rd files

please use 'R CMD command --help' to get further information about how to use 'command', okay? it's right there, use it 💖

also — sneaky but useful — the options --arch, --no-environ, --no-init-file, --no-site-file and --vanilla can be placed between R and CMD, so they apply to the R processes run by 'command'. flexibility, slay.

🐛 REPORTING BUGS 🐛

found a bug? report it at <https://bugs.R-project.org>. be nice, be specific 🫶

Copyright © 2026 The R Foundation for Statistical Computing Platform: x86_64-redhat-linux-gnu

R is free software and comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY. like, absolutely absolutely. you are welcome to redistribute it under the terms of the GNU General Public License versions 2 or 3. for more information about these matters see <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/>. 📜

💜 SEE ALSO 💜

the full documentation for R is provided by a collection of Texinfo manuals plus individual help for R objects, which is also available online.

start R and type ?topic at the R prompt to get on-line information for topic.

if the processed manuals have been installed, they'll be available as DVI and/or PDF files in the doc/manual subdirectory of the documentation directory tree (default `R RHOME`).

and if the info program and the R manuals are installed on your system, typing these should give you access to the good stuff:

info -f R-intro, info -f R-data, info -f R-exts, info -f R-FAQ,
info -f R-lang and info -f R-ints

which gets you, respectively: An Introduction to R'' (the basic manual), the R Data Import/Export'' Guide, the R Extension Writer's Guide'', the R FAQ'', the The R Language Definition'', and the R Internals''. a whole library, no cap 📚✨

okay that's literally the whole page!! this was R version 4.6.1, dated June 2026, and yes it's the R(1) page — go forth and analyze your data, bestie 🌸🦋💅

📦 where this page comes from