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A Fresh Approach to R Package Installation

pak installs R packages from CRAN, Bioconductor, GitHub, URLs, git repositories, local files and directories. It is an alternative to install.packages() and devtools::install_github(). pak is fast, safe and convenient.

🚀 Short tour

Install or update packages from CRAN or Bioconductor

pak::pkg_install("tibble")
#>  Loading metadata database ... done
#>
#> → Will install 11 packages.
#> → Will download 11 CRAN packages (4.55 MB).
#> + cli         3.6.3 [bld][cmp][dl] (568.16 kB)
#> + fansi       1.0.6 [bld][cmp][dl] (482.48 kB)
#> + glue        1.8.0 [bld][cmp][dl] (126.68 kB)
#> + lifecycle   1.0.4 [bld][dl] (107.66 kB)
#> + magrittr    2.0.3 [bld][cmp][dl] (267.07 kB)
#> + pillar      1.9.0 [bld][dl] (444.53 kB)
#> + pkgconfig   2.0.3 [bld][dl] (6.08 kB)
#> + rlang       1.1.4 [bld][cmp][dl] (767.04 kB)
#> + tibble      3.2.1 [bld][cmp][dl] (565.98 kB)
#> + utf8        1.2.4 [bld][cmp][dl] (241.08 kB)
#> + vctrs       0.6.5 [bld][cmp][dl] (969.07 kB)
#>
#>  Getting 11 pkgs (4.55 MB)
#>  Got glue 1.8.0 (source) (126.68 kB)
#>  Got pkgconfig 2.0.3 (source) (6.08 kB)
#>  Got lifecycle 1.0.4 (source) (107.66 kB)
#>  Got fansi 1.0.6 (source) (482.48 kB)
#>  Got utf8 1.2.4 (source) (241.08 kB)
#>  Got cli 3.6.3 (source) (568.16 kB)
#>  Got pillar 1.9.0 (source) (444.53 kB)
#>  Got magrittr 2.0.3 (source) (267.07 kB)
#>  Got tibble 3.2.1 (source) (565.98 kB)
#>  Got rlang 1.1.4 (source) (767.04 kB)
#>  Got vctrs 0.6.5 (source) (969.07 kB)
#>  Building cli 3.6.3
#>  Building fansi 1.0.6
#>  Building glue 1.8.0
#>  Building magrittr 2.0.3
#>  Built magrittr 2.0.3 (2s)
#>  Building pkgconfig 2.0.3
#>  Built glue 1.8.0 (2.5s)
#>  Building rlang 1.1.4
#>  Built pkgconfig 2.0.3 (1.4s)
#>  Building utf8 1.2.4
#>  Built fansi 1.0.6 (6.1s)
#>  Installed fansi 1.0.6  (44ms)
#>  Installed glue 1.8.0  (45ms)
#>  Installed magrittr 2.0.3  (39ms)
#>  Installed pkgconfig 2.0.3  (39ms)
#>  Built utf8 1.2.4 (4.9s)
#>  Installed utf8 1.2.4  (1s)
#>  Built cli 3.6.3 (12.2s)
#>  Installed cli 3.6.3  (1s)
#>  Built rlang 1.1.4 (12.4s)
#>  Installed rlang 1.1.4  (1s)
#>  Building lifecycle 1.0.4
#>  Built lifecycle 1.0.4 (1.3s)
#>  Installed lifecycle 1.0.4  (1s)
#>  Building vctrs 0.6.5
#>  Built vctrs 0.6.5 (15.2s)
#>  Installed vctrs 0.6.5  (56ms)
#>  Building pillar 1.9.0
#>  Built pillar 1.9.0 (2.9s)
#>  Installed pillar 1.9.0  (1s)
#>  Building tibble 3.2.1
#>  Built tibble 3.2.1 (2.8s)
#>  Installed tibble 3.2.1  (1s)
#>  1 pkg + 10 deps: added 11, dld 11 (4.55 MB) [49.3s]

Install packages from GitHub

pak::pkg_install("tidyverse/tibble")
#>
#> → Will update 1 package.
#> → The package (0 B) is cached.
#> + tibble 3.2.1 → 3.2.1.9034 [bld][cmp] (GitHub: 4aba1aa)
#>
#>  No downloads are needed, 1 pkg is cached
#>  Got tibble 3.2.1.9034 (source) (5.26 MB)
#>  Packaging tibble 3.2.1.9034
#>  Packaged tibble 3.2.1.9034 (1.2s)
#>  Building tibble 3.2.1.9034
#>  Built tibble 3.2.1.9034 (2.7s)
#>  Installed tibble 3.2.1.9034 (github::tidyverse/tibble@4aba1aa) (1s)
#>  1 pkg + 10 deps: kept 10, upd 1, dld 1 (NA B) [9.2s]

Look up dependencies

pak::pkg_deps_tree("tibble")
#> tibble 3.2.1 [new][bld][cmp]
#> ├─fansi 1.0.6 [new][bld][cmp]
#> ├─lifecycle 1.0.4 [new][bld]
#> │ ├─cli 3.6.3 [new][bld][cmp]
#> │ ├─glue 1.8.0 [new][bld][cmp]
#> │ └─rlang 1.1.4 [new][bld][cmp]
#> ├─magrittr 2.0.3 [new][bld][cmp]
#> ├─pillar 1.9.0 [new][bld]
#> │ ├─cli
#> │ ├─fansi
#> │ ├─glue
#> │ ├─lifecycle
#> │ ├─rlang
#> │ ├─utf8 1.2.4 [new][bld][cmp]
#> │ └─vctrs 0.6.5 [new][bld][cmp]
#> │   ├─cli
#> │   ├─glue
#> │   ├─lifecycle
#> │   └─rlang
#> ├─pkgconfig 2.0.3 [new][bld]
#> ├─rlang
#> └─vctrs
#>
#> Key:  [new] new | [bld] build | [cmp] compile

Explain dependencies

pak::pkg_deps_explain("tibble", "rlang")
#> tibble -> lifecycle -> rlang
#> tibble -> pillar -> lifecycle -> rlang
#> tibble -> pillar -> rlang
#> tibble -> pillar -> vctrs -> lifecycle -> rlang
#> tibble -> pillar -> vctrs -> rlang
#> tibble -> rlang
#> tibble -> vctrs -> lifecycle -> rlang
#> tibble -> vctrs -> rlang

Install a local package and its dependencies

pak::local_install("cli")
#>
#> → Will update 1 package.
#> → The package (0 B) is cached.
#> + cli 3.6.3 → 3.6.3 [bld][cmp]
#>
#>  No downloads are needed, 1 pkg is cached
#>  Got cli 3.6.3 (source) (568.16 kB)
#>  Packaging cli 3.6.3
#>  Packaged cli 3.6.3 (931ms)
#>  Building cli 3.6.3
#>  Built cli 3.6.3 (7.2s)
#>  Installed cli 3.6.3 (local) (1s)
#>  1 pkg: upd 1, dld 1 (568.16 kB) [9.9s]

How do I … ?

Start at Get Started with pak to solve specific issues.

Reference

The complete reference of pak functions is the most complete source of information about pak.

I have a(nother) question

Don’t hesitate to ask at the RStudio Community forum. Use the pak tag.

I would like to report a bug

Head to the pak issue tracker.

Features

Fast - parallel downloads and installation, caching, etc.

🦺 Safe - dependency solver, system dependency solver, etc.

🏪 Convenient - packages from multiple sources, time travel, etc.

See the complete list of awesome features.

⬇️ Installation

Pre-built binaries

Install a binary build of pak from our repository on GitHub:

install.packages("pak", repos = sprintf("https://r-lib.github.io/p/pak/stable/%s/%s/%s", .Platform$pkgType, R.Version()$os, R.Version()$arch))

This is supported for the following systems:

OS CPU R version
Linux x86_64 R 3.5.0 - R-devel
Linux aarch64 R 3.5.0 - R-devel
macOS High Sierra+ x86_64 R 3.5.0 - R-devel
macOS Big Sur+ aarch64 R 4.1.0 - R-devel
Windows x86_64 R 3.5.0 - R-devel

For macOS we only support the official CRAN R build. Other builds, e.g. Homebrew R, are not supported.

Install from CRAN

Install the released version of the package from CRAN as usual:

This potentially needs a C compiler on platforms CRAN does not have binaries packages for.

Other platforms and nightly builds

See the installation page!

📘 License

GPL-3 © RStudio