library

By default, rv installs packages within the project directory, in the subdirectory rv/library, which is further name spaced by R version, arch, and, for linux OS, the OS codename. Therefore, the default library path is <project directory>/rv/library/<R version>/<arch>/<linux codename>.

However, packages can be installed to any directory using the library configuration. rv will not do any name spacing, so the burden is on the user to ensure the correct set of packages is used across R versions and systems.

To increase reproducibility, rv does not consider a package as installed if this option is set since tracking how packages are installed is not as well controlled.

Example

rproject.toml

library = "/opt/rpkgs/4.5"
[project]
name = "custom library"
r_version = "4.5"
repositories = [
    { alias = "PPM", url = "https://packagemanager.posit.co/cran/latest" },
]
dependencies = [
    "dplyr",
]

Templating

Introduced in rv v0.22.0

Since the burden of name spacing falls on the user with a custom library path, rv supports two placeholders to make it easier to keep libraries separated by R version or project: {r_version} and {name}. These are expanded using the project’s r_version (major.minor) and name fields.

rproject.toml

library = "/opt/rpkgs/{r_version}/{name}"
[project]
name = "templated_library"
r_version = "4.5"
repositories = [
    { alias = "PPM", url = "https://packagemanager.posit.co/cran/latest" },
]
dependencies = [
    "dplyr",
]

In this example, packages would be installed to /opt/rpkgs/4.5/templated_library.

Overriding with RV_LIBRARY_DIR

The RV_LIBRARY_DIR environment variable overrides the library field (and the default rv/library path) entirely, taking precedence over whatever is set in the config file.