R.Version {base}R Documentation

Version Information

Description

R.Version() provides detailed information about the version of R running.

R.version is a variable (a list) holding this information (and version is a copy of it for S compatibility).

Usage

R.Version()
R.version
R.version.string
version

R_compiled_by()

Details

This gives details of the OS under which R was built, not the one under which it is currently running (for which see Sys.info).

Note that OS names might not be what you expect: for example macOS Mavericks 10.9.4 identifies itself as ‘⁠darwin13.3.0⁠’, Linux usually as ‘⁠linux-gnu⁠’, Solaris 10 as ‘⁠solaris2.10⁠’ and Windows as ‘⁠mingw32⁠’.

R.version$crt is supported on Windows since R 4.2.0 and returns "ucrt" to denote the Universal C Runtime. It would return "msvcrt" for the older Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime (but R does not use that runtime since 4.2.0).

Value

R.Version returns a list with character-string components

platform

the platform for which R was built. A triplet of the form CPU-VENDOR-OS, as determined by the configure script. E.g, "i686-unknown-linux-gnu" or "i386-pc-mingw32".

arch

the architecture (CPU) R was built on/for.

os

the underlying operating system.

crt

the C runtime on Windows.

system

CPU and OS, separated by a comma.

status

the status of the version (e.g., "alpha").

major

the major version number.

minor

the minor version number, including the patch level.

year

the year the version was released.

month

the month the version was released.

day

the day the version was released.

svn rev

the Subversion revision number, which should be either "unknown" or a single number. (A range of numbers or a number with ‘⁠M⁠’ or ‘⁠S⁠’ appended indicates inconsistencies in the sources used to build this version of R.)

language

always "R".

version.string

a character string concatenating some of the info above, useful for plotting, etc.

R.version and version are lists of class "simple.list" which has a print method.

R_compiled_by returns a two-element character vector giving details of the C and Fortran compilers used to build R. (Empty strings if no information is available.)

Note

Do not use R.version$os to test the platform the code is running on: use .Platform$OS.type instead. Slightly different versions of the OS may report different values of R.version$os, as may different versions of R. Alternatively, osVersion typically contains more details about the platform R is running on.

R.version.string is a copy of R.version$version.string for simplicity and backwards compatibility.

See Also

sessionInfo which provides additional information; getRversion typically used inside R code, osVersion, .Platform, Sys.info.

Examples

require(graphics)

R.version$os # to check how lucky you are ...
plot(0) # any plot
mtext(R.version.string, side = 1, line = 4, adj = 1) # a useful bottom-right note

## a good way to detect macOS:
if(grepl("^darwin", R.version$os)) message("running on macOS")

## Short R version string, ("space free", useful in file/directory names;
##                          also fine for unreleased versions of R):
shortRversion <- function() {
   rvs <- R.version.string
   if(grepl("devel", (st <- R.version$status)))
       rvs <- sub(paste0(" ",st," "), "-devel_", rvs, fixed=TRUE)
   gsub("[()]", "", gsub(" ", "_", sub(" version ", "-", rvs)))
}
shortRversion()


[Package base version 4.4.0 Index]