This is my first time to use renv package. I want it can help me to keep the enivronment clean and robust.

library(renv)

When I run the command, which prompt me that:

Welcome to renv!
It looks like this is your first time using renv. This is a one-time message,

briefly describing some of renv's functionality.
renv maintains a local cache of data on the filesystem, located at:

• "C:/Users/zl/AppData/Local/renv"

This path can be customized: please see the documentation in ?renv::paths.

renv will also write to files within the active project folder, including:

• A folder 'renv' in the project directory, and
• A lockfile called 'renv.lock' in the project directory.

In particular, projects using renv will normally use a private, per-project
R library, in which new packages will be installed. This project library is
isolated from other R libraries on your system.

In addition, renv will update files within your project directory, including:

• .gitignore
• .Rbuildignore
• .Rprofile

Please read the introduction vignette with vignette("renv") for more information.
You can browse the package documentation online at https://rstudio.github.io/renv/.

The tip tell me some useful information:

• renv maintains a local cache, which is C:/Users/zl/AppData/Local/renv. If you want to check it, you can use the renv::paths to read it.
• At current project, renv will use two files to monitor the environment. One is renv folder, another is renv.lock file.
• renv provides a projected-based and isolated R package library.
• as newber, please read the file of vignette("renv")

.Rbuildignore lets you remove arbitrary files and directories from the top level of package.
.Rprofile files are user-controllable files to set options and environment variables.

Do you want to proceed? [y/N]: y
* "C:/Users/zl/AppData/Local/renv" has been created.
* Initializing project ...
* Discovering package dependencies ... Done!
* Copying packages into the cache ... Done!
The following package(s) will be updated in the lockfile:
CRAN ===============================

• renv [* -> 0.12.2]

• Lockfile written to 'E:/workform/code/R/renv_learning/renv.lock'.

Restarting R session...

• Project 'E:/workform/code/R/renv_learning' loaded. [renv 0.12.2]
  

I just open the path to varify its avalibility.
C:\Users\zl\AppData\Local\renv

it works. And it also creates a renv.lock.

All files are listed like that:

linux shell file to get the files in the folder
$ tree  -L
2
.
├── renv
│   ├── activate.R
│   ├── library
│   └── settings.dcf
├── renv.lock
├── renv_learn1.R
└── renv_learning.Rproj
2 directories, 5 files

From the above, we can see 2 directories (renv and library) and 5 files.

I run the vignette("renv") command. I find it is less outdated compared with the online version. Therefore, I continue to use the newest version.

renv::snapshot() to save the state into the renv.lock file.

renv::restore() to revert to the previous state.

The main commands are that:

• renv::init, attempts to ensure the newly-created project library.
• renv::snapshot
• renv::restore

The workflow is that:

• renv::init all renv::dependencies() crawls R files within project. The discovered R pacakges are then installed into the project library with the renv::hydrate() function. For saving time, the renv:hydrate will directly copy the appropriate package from the user library to the project library.
• renv::init() will create a project-based .Rprofile to write out the necessary infrasture.

to repreduce your project. renv uses renv::snapshot() and renv::restore() to save and restore the state of the project library.

renv is not a panacea for reproducibility. renv just remember the version of R packages and provides tools for re-installing.

There are still a number of factors that affects wheather this project.

• the components of the system. Keeping a stable system image is good way to solve it. vignette("docker", package = "renv") can help you deal with the combination of docker and renv.
• The R packages may no longer be avalible.

renv::equip() can help download external software commonly used when compiling Rfrom sources.

Renv has several important files:

• .Rprofile active renv for new R sessions
• renv.lock describe the state of project's library.
• renv/active.R run by the project.
• renv/library is the private project library.

For collaboration, .Rprofile, renv.lock, renv/active.R should be committed to your version control system. renv/library should normally be ignored. renv::init() will attempt to write the statement in the project .gitignore file.

In China, sometimes we need to costom and local R package repositories. We can use repos to complete this.

repos<-c(CRAN = "https://cloud.r-project.org", WORK = "https://work.example.org")
options(repos = repos)

to tell the renv to work with both the official version and personal repository.

Reference:

https://rstudio.github.io/renv/articles/renv.html