pacman

The pacman package is an R package management tool that combines the functionality of base library related functions into intuitively named functions. This package is ideally added to .Rprofile to increase workflow by reducing time recalling obscurely named functions, reducing code and integrating functionality of base functions to simultaneously perform multiple actions.

Function names in the pacman package follow the format of p_xxx where ‘xxx’ is the task the function performs. For instance the p_load function allows the user to load one or more packages as a more generic substitute for the library or require functions and if the package isn’t available locally it will install it for you.

Installation

The user can install from CRAN via:

install.packages("pacman")

You can also download the dev version via zip ball or tar ball, decompress and run R CMD INSTALL on it, or use the devtools package to install the development version:

## Make sure your current packages are up to date
update.packages()
## devtools is required
library(devtools)
install_github("trinker/pacman")

Note: Windows users need Rtools and devtools to install this way.

Help

• Web Page
• Vignettes:
  • HTML Vignette: Introduction to pacman
  • pacman Functions: Quick Reference

Contact

You are welcome to:

• submit suggestions and bug-reports at: https://github.com/trinker/pacman/issues
• send a pull request on: https://github.com/trinker/pacman/
• compose a friendly e-mail to: tyler.rinker@gmail.com

Installing, Loading, Unloading, Updating, & Deleting Packages with pacman

Quick Reference Table

pacman Function
Base Equivalent
Description

p_load

install.packages + library

Load and Install Packages

p_install
install.packages
Install Packages from CRAN

p_load_gh
NONE
Load and Install GitHub Packages

p_install_gh
NONE
Install Packages from GitHub

p_install_version

install.packages & packageVersion

Install Minimum Version of Packages

p_temp
NONE
Install a Package Temporarily

p_unload
detach
Unload Packages from the Search Path

p_update
update.packages
Update Out-of-Date Packages