R Extension for Visual Studio Code (Fork)

Important

This is a fork of the original R extension that adds configurable working directory support for R processes.

What's New in This Fork

This fork implements the feature requested in issue #1634:

• New setting: r.workingDirectory - Configure where R processes start
• Flexible project structure: R Language Servers and terminals can run from subdirectories
• renv support: Perfect for projects with renv.lock files in subfolders
• Complex projects: No need to restructure your entire project layout

Use Cases

• Projects with R code in subdirectories (e.g., src/analysis/, R/)
• renv environments not in the workspace root
• Multi-language projects where R is just one component
• Monorepos with multiple R projects

Configuration Examples

Add this to your VS Code settings.json:

{
  "r.workingDirectory": "${workspaceFolder}/src/r-analysis"
}

Variable substitution supported:

• ${workspaceFolder} - Current workspace root
• ${userHome} - User home directory
• ${fileWorkspaceFolder} - Workspace folder of currently active file
• ${fileDirname} - Directory of currently active file

Example configurations:

// For renv projects in subdirectories
{
  "r.workingDirectory": "${workspaceFolder}/analytics"
}

// For projects where R files are in a specific folder
{
  "r.workingDirectory": "${workspaceFolder}/src/R"
}

// Dynamic: use the directory of the current file
{
  "r.workingDirectory": "${fileDirname}"
}

---

About the R Extension

This VS Code extension provides support for the R programming language, including features such as R language service based on code analysis, interacting with R terminals, viewing data, plots, workspace variables, help pages, managing packages, and working with R Markdown documents.

The R and R Markdown syntaxes are located in a slibing package vscode-R-syntax.

Go to the wiki to view the documentation of the extension.

Getting started

1. Install R (>= 3.4.0) on your system. For Windows users, Writing R Path to the registry is recommended in the installation.

2. Install languageserver in R.

   install.packages("languageserver")

3. Install the R extension for VS Code from the VS Code Extension Marketplace or the Open VSX Registry.

4. Create an R file and start coding.

The following software or extensions are recommended to enhance the experience of using R in VS Code:

• radian: A modern R console that corrects many limitations of the official R terminal and supports many features such as syntax highlighting and auto-completion.

• VSCode-R-Debugger: A VS Code extension to support R debugging capabilities.

• httpgd: An R package to provide a graphics device that asynchronously serves SVG graphics via HTTP and WebSockets.

Go to the installation wiki pages (Windows | macOS | Linux) for more detailed instructions.

Features

• Snippets for R and R Markdown.

• R Language Service: Code completion, function signature, symbol highlight, document outline, formatting, definition, diagnostics, references, and more.

• Interacting with R terminals: Sending code to terminals, running multiple terminals, working with remote servers.

• Smart R working directory: Automatically detects R project structures (renv, .Rproj, packages) or use explicit r.workingDirectory setting.

• Package development: Build, test, install, load all and other commands from devtools.

• Keyboard shortcuts: Built-in and customizable keyboard shortcuts.

• Workspace viewer: Environment pane to show global variables in the attached R session.

• Help pages viewer: Viewing R help pages and searching help topics.

• Package management: Installing and removing R packages.

• Session symbol hover and completion.

• Data viewer: Viewing data.frame or matrix in a grid or a list structure in a treeview.

• Plot viewer: PNG file viewer and SVG plot viewer based on httpgd.

• Webpage viewer: Viewing htmlwidgets such as interactive graphics and visual profiling results.

• Browser viewer: Viewing interactive shiny apps.

• R Markdown support: R Markdown chunk highlighting, chunk navigation, execute commands, and preview.

• RStudio add-in support: Run supported RStudio add-ins in VS Code with a live R session.

• Full support of Remote Development via SSH, Containers and WSL.

• Live share collaboration: Shared workspace, terminal, and viewer in R pair programming.

Questions, issues, feature requests, and contributions

• If you have a question about accomplishing something in general with the extension, please ask on Stack Overflow.

• If you find a problem or have a feature request with the extension, please find out if there is a current issue you may upvote or otherwise file an issue.

• Contributions are always welcome! Please see the contributing guide for more details.