R language is divided in packages. Some are part of the standard R system and mostly others are loaded on demand.
List packages installed in the system
> library() # Show which packages are installed in the system.See which packages are currently loaded (that appear in the search path)
> search()[1] ".GlobalEnv" "package:stats" "package:graphics"
[4] "package:grDevices" "package:utils" "package:datasets"
[7] "package:methods" "Autoloads" "package:base"
E.g: Load codetools package:
> library(codetools)> search()[1] ".GlobalEnv" "package:codetools" "package:stats"
[4] "package:graphics" "package:grDevices" "package:utils"
[7] "package:datasets" "package:methods" "Autoloads"
[10] "package:base"
Help about a package
Information on a package:
E.g: package base
> library(help = base)or
> help(package = base)Where to get a list of R packages
Standard packages which come with R installation:
base, compiler, datasets, grDevices, graphics, grid, methods, parallel, splines, stats, stats4, tcltk, tools, utils.
Which add-on packages exist for R (some recommended packages and repositories)?:
https://cran.r-project.org/doc/manuals/r-release/R-FAQ.html#Which-add_002don-packages-exist-for-R_003f
Contributed packages in CRAN:
https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/
List available packages from R interpreter:
> available.packages()Show packages loaded by default:
> getOption("defaultPackages")[1] "datasets" "utils" "grDevices" "graphics" "stats" "methods"
Install CRAN packages
> install.packages() # It asks for a mirror and then asks for a package to install.E.g: I tell it to install gdata package:
Installing package into ‘/usr/local/lib/R/site-library’
(as ‘lib’ is unspecified)
Warning in install.packages() :
'lib = "/usr/local/lib/R/site-library"' is not writable
Would you like to use a personal library instead? (y/n)
GCC compiler is needed for the source to compile.
gcc -std=gnu99 -I/usr/share/R/include -DNDEBUG -fpic -g -O2 -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security -Wdate-time -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -g -c roman2int.c -o roman2int.o
gcc -std=gnu99 -I/usr/share/R/include -DNDEBUG -fpic -g -O2 -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security -Wdate-time -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -g -c setTCPNoDelay.c -o setTCPNoDelay.o
gcc -std=gnu99 -shared -L/usr/lib/R/lib -Wl,-z,relro -o gtools.so roman2int.o setTCPNoDelay.o -L/usr/lib/R/lib -lR
installing to /home/vicente/R/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-library/3.2/gtools/libs
or I could install a specific package directly:
> install.packages("gdata")Installing package into ‘/home/vicente/R/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-library/3.2’
Load a package:
> library(gdata)> search()[1] ".GlobalEnv" "package:gdata" "package:stats"
[4] "package:graphics" "package:grDevices" "package:utils"
[7] "package:datasets" "package:methods" "Autoloads"
[10] "package:base"
You can unload the loaded package by:
> detach("package:gdata")or
> detach("package:gdata", unload = TRUE)(where unload = TRUE is needed only for packages with a namespace, see ?unload).
Find help for a funtion within the package:
> ?gdata::read.xlsor
> help(package=gdata, read.xls)UPDATING PACKAGES
List status of installed packages:
> packageStatus()Number of installed packages:
ok upgrade unavailable
/home/vicente/R/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-library/3.2 2 0 0
/usr/local/lib/R/site-library 0 0 0
/usr/lib/R/site-library 0 0 0
/usr/lib/R/library 24 5 0
Number of available packages (each package counted only once):
installed not installed
https://ftp.cixug.es/CRAN/src/contrib 17 8366
Update packages:
> update.packages()boot :
Version 1.3-17 installed in /usr/lib/R/library
Version 1.3-18 available at https://ftp.cixug.es/CRAN
Update (y/N/c)?
.....
REMOVE PACKAGES:
From a running R process they can be removed by
> remove.packages(c("pkg1", "pkg2"),
lib = file.path("path", "to", "library"))E.g:
> remove.packages("gdata")
Reference
https://cran.r-project.org/doc/manuals/r-release/R-intro.html#Packages
https://cran.r-project.org/doc/manuals/r-release/R-admin.html#Add_002don-packages