We are thrilled to announce rig 0.11.0 (and 0.10.0), with lots of new functionalities: user mode R installations, R package and project management and much more. This is the second of three blog posts about the new rig release. This post is about managing R packages.
The first post covered user mode R installations. The third will focus on project management.
Full changelog on the rig web site.
Introduction#
The new rig pkg command lets you manage R packages: installing,
removing, and querying package dependencies. It supports CRAN-like
repositories, packages in git repositories (including on GitHub), URLs
pointing to package files and packages in local files and directories.
rig pkg is aimed at R users and developers who use a single (or a few)
package libraries. If you prefer to use project-specific libraries, you
probably want to use rig proj instead.
rig pkg is new and less battle-tested than other parts of rig.
Please report any issues you find on the rig GitHub repository.
Managing installed packages#
rig pkg list lists installed packages in a library. rig pkg remove
removes a package from a library.
❯ rig pkg list
559 packages (R 4.6.1, main: /Users/gaborcsardi/Library/R/arm64/4.6/library)
Package Version Built Platform Source
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
abind 1.4-8 4.6.0 - RSPM
ade4 1.7-24 4.6.0 aarch64-apple-darwin23 CRAN
adegenet 2.1.11 4.6.0 aarch64-apple-darwin23 CRAN
AdmixPoly 1.0.1 4.6.0 aarch64-apple-darwin20 RSPM
affy 1.90.0 4.6.1 aarch64-apple-darwin23 RSPM
affyio 1.82.0 4.6.0 aarch64-apple-darwin20 RSPM
[...]rig pkg commands use the current default R version (as in rig default),
unless the -r or --r-version option specifies otherwise. They use the
default library (as in rig library default), unless the -l or
--library option specifies otherwise.
rig pkg doctor checks the health of your package library, identifying any
issues with installed packages or their dependencies: missing dependencies,
dependency conflicts, ABI conflicts, etc. It also tells you how to fix these
issues.
❯ rig pkg doctor
3 problems (1 error, 2 warnings) in 559 packages (R 4.6.1, main: /Users/gaborcsardi/Library/R/arm64/4.6/library)
Package Version Severity Problem Details
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
00LOCK-dress.graph - warning lock lock directory left behind by an interrupted installation
dress.graph - warning broken no DESCRIPTION file
missoNet 1.5.1 error missing Imports ComplexHeatmap, not installed
To fix the errors, run:
rig pkg install ComplexHeatmap
To remove the leftover lock directories, if no installation is running, run:
rm -rf /Users/gaborcsardi/Library/R/arm64/4.6/library/00LOCK-dress.graph
To remove the broken packages, run:
rm -rf /Users/gaborcsardi/Library/R/arm64/4.6/library/dress.graph
✗ Found 1 error in /Users/gaborcsardi/Library/R/arm64/4.6/libraryInstalling packages#
rig pkg install can install R packages from CRAN-like repositories,
git repositories, GitHub, URLs, and local paths. It uses the default R
version and the default package library (see below about libraries),
unless otherwise specified. It caches metadata and package files heavily,
avoids redundant downloads and installations, and performs downloads and
package builds in parallel. It uses the host OS’s file cloning capabilities
to efficiently copy files when installing packages.
If you used the pak R package to install R packages previously, rig pkg
will probably feel familiar, except that you can run it from the command
line instead of from within R.
This is what installing a package into an empty library looks like, if the package files are already cached:
❯ rig pkg install dplyr
▶ Downloading binary package metadata
▶ Solving dependencies
✓ Solved dependencies
15 of 15 packages to install (R 4.6.1, test: /Users/gaborcsardi/Library/R/arm64/4.6/library/__test)
Package Version Type Action Reason
cli 3.6.6 binary install not installed
dplyr 1.2.1 binary install not installed
generics 0.1.4 binary install not installed
glue 1.8.1 binary install not installed
lifecycle 1.0.5 binary install not installed
magrittr 2.0.5 binary install not installed
pillar 1.11.1 binary install not installed
pkgconfig 2.0.3 binary install not installed
R6 2.6.1 binary install not installed
rlang 1.3.0 binary install not installed
tibble 3.3.1 binary install not installed
tidyselect 1.2.1 binary install not installed
utf8 1.2.6 binary install not installed
vctrs 0.7.3 binary install not installed
withr 3.0.3 binary install not installed
▶ Downloading 15 packages
✓ Cached: cli
✓ Cached: dplyr
✓ Cached: generics
✓ Cached: glue
✓ Cached: lifecycle
✓ Cached: magrittr
✓ Cached: pillar
✓ Cached: pkgconfig
✓ Cached: R6
✓ Cached: rlang
✓ Cached: tibble
✓ Cached: tidyselect
✓ Cached: utf8
✓ Cached: vctrs
✓ Cached: withr
Complete: 0 downloaded, 15 cached [========================================] 15/15 packages
▶ Installing 15 packages.
Installed R6 2.6.1
Installed cli 3.6.6
Installed rlang 1.3.0
Installed magrittr 2.0.5
Installed pkgconfig 2.0.3
Installed glue 1.8.1
Installed withr 3.0.3
Installed utf8 1.2.6
Installed generics 0.1.4
Installed lifecycle 1.0.5
Installed vctrs 0.7.3
Installed tidyselect 1.2.1
Installed pillar 1.11.1
Installed tibble 3.3.1
Installed dplyr 1.2.1
✓ Installed all 15 packages successfully
✓ Installed 15 packages (R 4.6.1, test: /Users/gaborcsardi/Library/R/arm64/4.6/library/__test)Version constraints#
rig pkg install supports version constraints for packages. Request a
specific version of a package with @==<version>:
❯ rig pkg install ggplot2@==4.0.2If you are familiar with ~ and ^ version constraints from other languages,
you can use them with rig pkg install as well. E.g. to install the
latest version of the ggplot2 3.x.y series, you would run:
❯ rig pkg install ggplot2@^3.0.0Dependency solver#
The rig dependency solver makes sure that all package dependencies are resolved correctly before installation. If the combination of packages cannot be installed on the specified R version or platform, rig will report an error and refuse to proceed with the installation. For example:
❯ rig pkg install -r 4.0.5-x86_64 'testthat@>=3.3.0'
▶ Downloading binary package metadata
▶ Solving dependencies
✗ Cannot resolve dependencies for R 4.0.5 / x86_64-apple-darwin:
Because testthat >=3.3.0 depends on R >=4.1.0 and you requested
testthat >=3.3.0, the requested packages cannot be installed.Packages from git, GitHub, URLs, paths#
If you are familiar with pak’s syntax for installing packages from
various non-CRAN sources, you can use the same syntax with rig. E.g. a
GitHub package is simply username/repo. You can use the usual syntax
for tags, branches, pull requests:
❯ rig pkg install r-lib/cli
❯ rig pkg install r-lib/cli@badcafe
❯ rig pkg install r-lib/cli@some-branch
❯ rig pkg install r-lib/cli#41Prefix packages in git repositories with git::. To install a package
from a URL simply use the full URL. For a local path use a relative path
starting with ./, ../ or ~/ or an absolute path:
❯ rig pkg install .
❯ rig pkg install ./mypkg
❯ rig pkg install ../mypkg
❯ rig pkg install ~/works/mypkg
❯ rig pkg install /opt/src/mypkg
❯ rig pkg install ./mypkg_1.0.0.tar.gzPreferring binary packages#
rig prefers to install the binary package for a certain package version if
it is available, instead of building and potentially compiling it from
source. By default it does not choose an older version over a newer one
just because a binary is available for the older version. The
--prefer-binary option changes this. Use it if you prefer older binary
packages over newer source packages:
❯ rig pkg install --prefer-binary tidyverseInstalling dependencies#
To install the dependencies of a package, without installing the package
itself, use --no-install-project. This is especially useful to install
all dependencies of a package tree in the current working directory. The
second variant also installs soft (development) dependencies:
❯ rig pkg install --no-install-project .
❯ rig pkg install --no-install-project --dev .Repositories#
rig pkg subcommands always use the configured repositories, see the
rig repos command. They also have --with-repos and --without-repos
options to include or exclude specific repositories when performing a single
package operation, without modifying the configured repositories. E.g. to
query the version of a package on CRAN and P3M you can run:
❯ rig pkg info otel --without-repos --with-repos=p3m --versions
otel — 2 versions (latest 0.2.0)
Version Published R Deps
-------------------------------------------------------
0.1.0 2025-07-31 >= 3.6.0 0
0.2.0 2025-08-29 >= 3.6.0 0 ← latest❯ rig pkg info otel --without-repos --with-repos=cran --versions
otel — 1 version (latest 0.2.0)
Version Published R Deps
-------------------------------------------------------
0.2.0 ? >= 3.6.0 0 ← latestPackage queries#
rig pkg info prints information about a package, by default about the
latest version:
❯ rig pkg info tidymodels
tidymodels 1.5.0 (RSPM)
Easily Install and Load the 'Tidymodels' Packages
The tidy modeling "verse" is a collection of packages for modeling and
statistical analysis that share the underlying design philosophy, grammar, and
data structures of the tidyverse.
Maintainer Max Kuhn <max@posit.co>
License MIT + file LICENSE
Published 2026-04-23 06:20:02 UTC
URL https://tidymodels.tidymodels.org,
https://github.com/tidymodels/tidymodels
BugReports https://github.com/tidymodels/tidymodels/issues
Compilation no
Depends R (>= 4.1)
Imports broom (>= 1.0.12), cli (>= 3.6.6), conflicted (>= 1.2.0), dials
(>= 1.4.3), dplyr (>= 1.2.1), ggplot2 (>= 4.0.3), hardhat (>=
1.4.3), infer (>= 1.1.0), modeldata (>= 1.5.1), parsnip (>=
1.5.0), purrr (>= 1.2.2), recipes (>= 1.3.2), rlang (>= 1.2.0),
rsample (>= 1.3.2), rstudioapi (>= 0.18.0), tailor (>= 0.1.0),
tidyr (>= 1.3.2), tune (>= 2.1.0), workflows (>= 1.3.0),
workflowsets (>= 1.1.1), yardstick (>= 1.4.0)
Suggests covr, glue, knitr, rmarkdown, testthat (>= 3.0.0), xml2rig pkg info --versions lists all versions of a package. This only works
with P3M repositories because it needs extended metadata that plain
CRAN-like repositories typically do not have:
❯ rig pkg info tidymodels --versions
tidymodels — 17 versions (latest 1.5.0)
Version Published R Deps
-------------------------------------------------------
0.0.1 2018-07-27 >= 3.1 18
0.0.2 2018-11-27 >= 3.1 20
0.0.3 2019-10-04 >= 3.1 20
0.1.0 2020-02-16 >= 3.1 22
0.1.1 2020-07-14 >= 3.1 20
0.1.2 2020-11-22 >= 3.1 19
0.1.3 2021-04-19 >= 3.1 20
0.1.4 2021-10-01 >= 3.1 21
0.2.0 2022-03-19 >= 3.4 21
1.0.0 2022-07-13 >= 3.4 21
1.1.0 2023-05-01 >= 3.4 21
1.1.1 2023-08-24 >= 3.4 21
1.2.0 2024-03-25 >= 3.6 21
1.3.0 2025-02-21 >= 3.6 21
1.4.0 2025-09-05 >= 4.1 21
1.4.1 2025-09-08 >= 4.1 21
1.5.0 2026-04-23 >= 4.1 21 ← latestrig pkg deps prints the dependencies of a package. rig pkg tree does
the same, but as a dependency tree. You can use these commands to query
non-CRAN-like packages. E.g. the dependency tree of the package in the
current working directory is
❯ rig pkg tree --dev .
otelsdk 0.2.4.9000 (local: /Users/gaborcsardi/works/otelsdk) — 14 direct, 51 total
├── otel 0.2.0
│ └── R (>= 3.6.0) [D]
└── utils
[Suggests]
├── callr 3.8.0
│ ├── R (>= 3.4) [D]
│ ├── otel 0.2.0 (>= 0.2.0) (*)
│ ├── processx 3.9.0 (>= 3.6.1)
│ │ ├── R (>= 3.4.0) [D]
│ │ ├── ps 1.9.3 (>= 1.9.3)
│ │ │ ├── R (>= 3.4) [D]
│ │ │ └── utils
│ │ ├── R6 2.6.1
│ │ │ └── R (>= 3.6) [D]
│ │ └── utils
│ ├── R6 2.6.1 (*)
│ └── utils
├── cli 3.6.6
│ ├── R (>= 3.4) [D]
│ └── utils
├── curl 8.0.0
│ └── R (>= 3.0.0) [D]
[...]The --dev flag includes development dependencies as well.
rig pkg search searches all CRAN packages using R-hub package search
service:
❯ rig pkg search palette --short
- "palette" ----------------------------------- 177 packages in 0.009 seconds -
# package version by @ title
1 100 RColorBrewer 1.1-3 Erich Neuwirth 5y ColorBrewer Palettes
2 46 colorspace 2.1-3 Achim Zeileis 3M A Toolbox for Manipula...
3 23 paletteer 1.7.0 Emil Hvitfeldt 9M Comprehensive Collecti...
4 16 ggsci 5.2.0 Nan Xiao 2M Scientific Journal and...
5 13 wesanderson 0.3.7 Karthik Ram 3y A Wes Anderson Palette...
6 8 rcartocolor 2.1.2 Jakub Nowosad 1y 'CARTOColors' Palettes
7 8 pals 1.10 Kevin Wright 2y Color Palettes, Colorm...
8 8 scico 1.5.0 Thomas Lin Pedersen 3y Colour Palettes Based...
9 6 palette 0.0.3 Christopher T. Kenny 1y Color Scheme Helpers
10 6 MetBrewer 0.2.0 Blake Robert Mills 5y Color Palettes Inspire...
11 6 palr 0.5.0 Michael D. Sumner 2M Colour Palettes for Data
12 6 blends 0.1.2 David Hodge 3M Blend Colours and Pale...
13 6 biscale 1.1.0 Christopher Prener 1y Tools and Palettes for...
14 5 palettes 0.2.2 Michael McCarthy 1y Methods for Colour Vec...
15 5 PrettyCols 1.1.0 Nicola Rennie 2y Pretty Colour Palettes
16 5 gifski 1.32.0-2 Jeroen Ooms 2y Highest Quality GIF En...
17 5 wacolors 0.3.1 Cory McCartan 5y Colorblind-Friendly Pa...
18 4 colourpicker 1.3.0 Dean Attali 3y A Colour Picker Tool f...
19 4 amerika 0.1.1 Philip Waggoner 1y American Politics-Insp...
20 4 makePalette 0.1.2 Jorge L. C. Musaja 3y Make Palette
Next 20 results: rig pkg search palette --from 21 --shortPackage libraries#
rig creates a user-level package library for each R installation by default.
(See the rig FAQ why.) This is the package
library that rig pkg commands use by default.
The rig library command supports creating other package libraries, still
stored in the user’s home directory. You can refer to them by name and make
them the default library for rig pkg commands with rig library default.
For example to create a temporary library and install the Shiny package from GitHub into it, including development dependencies, you can run:
rig library add test
rig library default test
rig pkg install --dev rstudio/shinyYou can also use the -l or --library option of the rig pkg commands to
change the package library temporarily for one command, without changing the
default.
If you are using the macOS menu bar app, then you can also manage package libraries through the app’s interface.
System requirements#
On certain Linux systems rig supports automatic system requirements installation. These are currently:
- Ubuntu Linux
- RedHat Enterprise Linux and clones
- openSUSE Linux and SUSE Linux Enterprise
- Debian Linux
- Fedora Linux
- Alpine Linux
For the automatic system requirements installation to work, rig must run
as the root user or with password-less sudo privileges to call the
system package manager.
Note that in user mode, rig installs the self-contained manylinux R build, which does not require any system-level dependencies and also sets up Posit’s manylinux package repository, which has self-contained binaries for most CRAN and Bioconductor packages. So in user mode you typically do not need to worry about system-level dependencies.
Your feedback is welcome!#
We would love to hear your thoughts, suggestions, and any issues you encounter while using rig. Please use the issue tracker for bug reports and feature requests, and the discussion forum or Posit community for general questions and discussions.
