rig: an easy way to switch from an R version to another

rig is an R Installation manager that allows you to easily switch between different R versions.

To install it, follow the instructions on the GitHub page.

On ubuntu, rig will “work” with R versions installed/stored at /opt/R/. It will not detect the R versions installed via apt. If you never tried to solve this question of switching between R versions, you will need to reinstall the R versions you’re interested in using rig.

To do this, use the add command. For example, to install R version 4.2.2:

$ rig add 4.2.2

After installing additional versions, you can check all the versions available on your computer using the list command:

$ rig list
* name   version  aliases
------------------------------------------
  4.2.2           
  4.3.3           
* 4.4.1           release

The ’*’ indicates the default version.

Then to access the desired R version in RStudio, use the rstudio command:

$ rig rstudio 4.2.2

Here is a command list you can use:

rig add        -- install a new R version [alias: install]
rig available  -- List R versions available to install.
rig default    -- print or set default R version [alias: switch]
rig library    -- manage package libraries [alias: lib] (experimental)
rig list       -- list installed R versions [alias: ls]
rig resolve    -- resolve a symbolic R version
rig rm         -- remove R versions [aliases: del, delete, remove]
rig rstudio    -- start RStudio with the specified R version
rig run        -- Run R, an R script or an R project
rig sysreqs    -- manage R-related system libraries and tools (experimental) (macOS)
rig system     -- manage current installations

For more information, check the GitHub page.