Ship packages between R installations

Compares the package libraries of two R installations and transfers missing or outdated packages into the target.

Usage

ship(
  source_path,
  target_path,
  packages = NULL,
  dry_run = FALSE,
  upgrade = FALSE,
  log_callback = NULL,
  mode = c("online", "offline", "preserve"),
  source_pkgs = NULL,
  target_pkgs = NULL,
  ...
)

Arguments

source_path: Full path to the Rscript executable of the source installation (the one you are copying packages from). Use find_routes() to discover available paths.
target_path: Full path to the Rscript executable of the target installation (the one you are installing packages into). The target R must have pak installed for mode = "online" or pak fallbacks.
packages: Character vector of package names to act on. If NULL (the default), all packages that are missing from or outdated in the target are included.
dry_run: If TRUE, build and return the installation plan without installing anything. Use this to review what will happen before committing to a sync.
upgrade: Passed to pak::pkg_install() in online mode. The packages in the plan (missing or outdated in the target) are always installed at the latest compatible version regardless. If TRUE, pak additionally upgrades every outdated dependency of those packages in the target library; if FALSE (the default), dependencies are only changed when a version requirement forces it, which is much faster.
log_callback: Optional function of one argument. When provided, it is called with a single character string for each progress message emitted during package transfer.
mode: Transfer mode: "online" reinstalls via pak (default), "offline" copies package directories by file and skips packages without a valid source path, and "preserve" copies first then falls back to a pinned pak spec for packages that could not be copied.
source_pkgs, target_pkgs: Optional pre-scanned manifests (as returned by manifest()) for the source and target installations. When supplied, the corresponding manifest() subprocess scan is skipped, avoiding redundant library scans when the caller has already scanned both installations.
...: Reserved for future arguments.

Value

A named list with the following elements:

plan: data.table of planned actions with columns package, action ("install" or "upgrade"), mode, version.x (source version), version.y (target version, NA if the package is missing), and pak_spec (the spec passed to pak).
results: data.table of per-package outcomes with columns package, status ("success", "skipped", or "error"), and message.
comparison: The raw inventory() comparison table.
dry_run: TRUE if no packages were installed.
elapsed_sec: Total wall-clock time in seconds.

Safety

ship() can install packages into the target R library via pak::pkg_install() running in a subprocess, or copy package directories directly for offline/preserve transfers. Set dry_run = TRUE to preview the migration plan without installing or copying anything. The source R need not have pak installed. Subprocess calls and file copies are confined to the target library path and R temporary directory.

Examples

# \donttest{
  routes <- find_routes()
  if (nrow(routes) >= 2) {
    result <- ship(
      source_path = routes$rscript_path[1],
      target_path = routes$rscript_path[2],
      dry_run = TRUE
    )
    print(result$plan)
  }
# }