[R] where does R search when source()?

[Spencer Graves]

  In case no one who knows has time to reply to this, I will report on 
my empirical investigation of this question using R 1.9.1 under Windows 
2000. First, I saved a simple script file "tst-source.R" in the working 
directory, e.g., "d:/sg/proj1". When I said, "source('tst-source.R')", 
it sourced the file appropriately. Then I moved this file to the 
immediate parent, e.g., "d:/sg" and tried the same source command. It 
replied, "Error ... unable to open connection ... ." Then I got a 
command prompt, said, "path", and moved the file into one of the 
directories in the search path. When I repeated the "source" command, it 
was still "unable to open connection ... ."

Conclusion: From this and other experiences, I have found three ways to 
specify file names:

(1) If the complete path and file name are supplied for an existing 
file, 'source' will find it.

(2) If a file is in the working directory, specifying that name will get 
it.

(3) If a file is in a subdirectory of the working directory, e.g., 
"d:/sg/proj1/sub1/tst-source.R", then specifying 
"source('sub1/tst-source.R')" will get it.

hope this helps. spencer graves

Shin, Daehyok wrote:

>Exactly where does R search for foo.R if I type source("foo.R")?
>Only from current working directory (same as getwd()), from all directories
>specified by e.g. $PATH?  Thanks.
>
>Daehyok Shin
>
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