[R] autoloading .RData files / .Rhistory file

[Duncan Murdoch]

On 3/16/2006 1:23 PM, Greg Tarpinian wrote:
>      NOTE: WinXP, R2.2.0
> 
> All,
> 
> a while back I posted a question about using relative filereferencing.
> The responses have allowed me to successfully set up the following
> directory structure:
> 
>    ...\data\raw
>    ...\data\derived
>    ...\prog
>    ...\lst
>    ...\log
> 
> In the \prog directory I have put an RGui.exe shortcut and "pointed it"
> at \prog as the "Start In" location.  In the same directory I have
> created .Rprofile and .Renviron per the rw-FAQ.  In \log I have created
> .Rhistory.  .Renviron sets up several directory references that allow me
> to "point" R at the \lst, \log, \data\derived, and \data\raw directories
> without using full pathnames.  My three questions:
> 
>   (1) Is it possible to have R use \data\derived as its default data
>       storage location?

I think

setwd("../data/derived")

would do that, but I'm not sure why you wouldn't want your .Rprofile and 
.Renviron files in the same place as the data, so I'm not sure I 
understand your goals.
> 
>   (2) Related to (1), what command(s) would I need to put in .Rprofile 
>       to get R to look in \data\derived and automatically load the 
>       xxx.RData file **when it exists** ?? [This is the only directory 
>       where an .RData file will ever be located; when an .RData file 
>       exists, there will only ever be one of them.]

if (file.exists(".RData")) load(file=".RData")

>       
>       Along these lines, it would be helpful to set R up so that when
>       .RData does *not* exist, upon quitting Rgui.exe R will automatically
>       save an xxx.RData file in the \data\derived directory.....

With the setwd() command above, that'll be the default location, but 
you'll have to agree to save it.
> 
>   (3) The .Rhistory file never seems to contain the command history of
>       my session.  It may be worthwhile to note that I always use an 
>       explicit save.image(file = ...) command and that upon exit I always
>       decline to "Save Workspace Image?" since this is redundant.  How
>       can I get the .Rhistory file to capture the command history?

savehistory(file = ".Rhistory")

Depending on where you save it, it might not be loaded automatically; if 
you want to load it, use

loadhistory(file = ".Rhistory")

Duncan Murdoch

> 
> 
> Much thanks in advance for whatever help I might be able to obtain!  I
> apologize if these are trivial questions.
> 
> Kind regards,
> 
>     Greg
> 
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