Get the path of current script

Question

I would like to set the working directory to the path of current script programmatically but first I need to get the path of current script.

So I would like to be able to do:

current_path = ...retrieve the path of current script ...
setwd(current_path)

Just like the RStudio menu does:

So far I tried:

initial.options <- commandArgs(trailingOnly = FALSE)
file.arg.name <- "--file="
script.name <- sub(file.arg.name, "", initial.options[grep(file.arg.name, initial.options)])
script.basename <- dirname(script.name)

script.name returns NULL

source("script.R", chdir = TRUE)

Returns: Error in file(filename, "r", encoding = encoding) : cannot open the connection In addition: Warning message: In file(filename, "r", encoding = encoding) : cannot open file '/script.R': No such file or directory

dirname(parent.frame(2)$ofile)

Returns: Error in dirname(parent.frame(2)$ofile) : a character vector argument expected ...because parent.frame is null

frame_files <- lapply(sys.frames(), function(x) x$ofile)
frame_files <- Filter(Negate(is.null), frame_files)
PATH <- dirname(frame_files[[length(frame_files)]])

Returns: Null because frame_files is a list of 0

thisFile <- function() {
    cmdArgs <- commandArgs(trailingOnly = FALSE)
    needle <- "--file="
    match <- grep(needle, cmdArgs)
    if (length(match) > 0) {
        # Rscript
        return(normalizePath(sub(needle, "", cmdArgs[match])))
    } else {
        # 'source'd via R console
        return(normalizePath(sys.frames()[[1]]$ofile))
    }
}

Returns: Error in path.expand(path) : invalid 'path' argument

Also I saw all answers from here, here, here and here. No joy.

Working with RStudio 1.1.383

EDIT: It would be great if there was no need for an external library to achieve this.

Probably source("<path to file>/script.R", chdir = TRUE) will work as the help file says about chdir: * if TRUE and file is a pathname, the R working directory is temporarily changed to the directory containing file for evaluating.* The error message you get says that R can't find a file named script.R in the current working directory. — lmo
– lmo, Commented Oct 31, 2017 at 20:39
My file name is lpp.R and I do give this name... I remember in other versions of RStudio I did it easily with parent frame, now nothing — Panos Kalatzantonakis
– Panos Kalatzantonakis, Commented Oct 31, 2017 at 20:42
In an R studio project folder, it is a good practice to assume that all file paths are relative to the project's root directory. See Stop the working directory insanity. I personally do not use it but the here package is recommended to find where a given file is located. — Paul Rougieux
– Paul Rougieux, Commented Oct 31, 2017 at 23:01
@Imo -- that only works if you source the file, but not if you call it with Rscript. — abalter
– abalter, Commented Aug 1, 2019 at 21:07
@PaulRougieux -- that only works if the file you are running (or sourcing) is in the project directory. If you are running (or sourcing) a file in another location, it will not work. — abalter
– abalter, Commented Aug 1, 2019 at 21:08

user2554330 · Accepted Answer · 2017-10-31 22:23:19Z

137

In RStudio, you can get the path to the file currently shown in the source pane using

rstudioapi::getSourceEditorContext()$path

If you only want the directory, use

dirname(rstudioapi::getSourceEditorContext()$path)

If you want the name of the file that's been run by source(filename), that's a little harder. You need to look for the variable srcfile somewhere back in the stack. How far back depends on how you write things, but it's around 4 steps back: for example,

fi <- tempfile()
writeLines("f()", fi)
f <- function() print(sys.frame(-4)$srcfile)
source(fi)
fi

should print the same thing on the last two lines.

answered Oct 31, 2017 at 22:23

user2554330

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17 Comments

Panos Kalatzantonakis Over a year ago

This works great. The good thing is that it has fewer dependencies vs here package. The truth is that I was hoping to do this without a library. I will wait one/two days to check if someone has something to add and then I will accept it. Thanks.

Panos Kalatzantonakis Over a year ago

I just did a clean install in another PC in the office. Newest R Studio (1.1.383), newest R version (R version 3.4.2 (2017-09-28)). Now I get this error: Error: 'getSourceEditorContext' is not an exported object from 'namespace:rstudioapi'

Panos Kalatzantonakis Over a year ago

I need to make the code portable, having all data in a specific folder and make it work as fast as possible in other people pc. Specially those who just know how to press the play button and see the code producing results without any user interference

Onur Demir Over a year ago

This does not run in terminal like Rscript test.R

stallingOne Over a year ago

In my case, running that snippet doesnt print the folder of the current script like the rstudioapi solution. I get "C:\\Users\\xxxx\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\Rtmpw3wD2J\\file58d858796d29" which is not where my script is.

|

Juan Bernabe · Accepted Answer · 2019-03-24 09:27:18Z

31

Update March 2019

Based on Alexis Lucattini and user2554330 answers, to make it work on both command line and RStudio. Also solving the "as_tibble" deprecated message

library(tidyverse)
getCurrentFileLocation <-  function()
{
    this_file <- commandArgs() %>% 
    tibble::enframe(name = NULL) %>%
    tidyr::separate(col=value, into=c("key", "value"), sep="=", fill='right') %>%
    dplyr::filter(key == "--file") %>%
    dplyr::pull(value)
    if (length(this_file)==0)
    {
      this_file <- rstudioapi::getSourceEditorContext()$path
    }
    return(dirname(this_file))
}

answered Mar 24, 2019 at 9:27

Juan Bernabe

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5 Comments

abalter Over a year ago

This actually works and should be the accepted answer in all related questions.

user3799203 Over a year ago

Nice. Within if (length ...) { }, below this_file <- ... I added if(this_file=="") message("You are running code in RStudio in a new R script window, so the filename is blank.")

Hilton Fernandes Over a year ago

Great answer ! It's also very informative of the current way of programming R, that uses tidyverse pipelines instead of loops.

Gus Over a year ago

From command line this causes Error: RStudio not running

Jakub.Novotny Over a year ago

I like the idea, but the code can be simplified. See my answer.

Paul Rougieux · Accepted Answer · 2022-10-19 07:45:23Z

23

TLDR: The here package (available on CRAN) helps you build a path from a project's root directory. R projects configured with here() can be shared with colleagues working on different laptops or servers and paths built relative to the project's root directory will still work. The development version is at github.com/r-lib/here.

With git

You certainly store your R code in a directory. This directory is probably part of a git repository and/or an R studio project. I would recommend building all paths relative to that project's root directory. For example let's say that you have an R script that creates reusable plotting functions and that you have an R markdown notebook that loads that script and plots graphs in a nice (so nice) document. The project tree would look something like this

├── notebooks
│   ├── analysis.Rmd
├── R
│   ├── prepare_data.R
│   ├── prepare_figures.R

From the analysis.Rmd notebook, you would import plotting function with here() as such:

source(file.path(here::here("R"), "prepare_figures.R"))

Why?

Hadley Wickham in a Stackoverflow comment:

"You should never use setwd() in R code - it basically defeats the idea of using a working directory because you can no longer easily move your code between computers. – hadley Nov 20 '10 at 23:44 "

From the Ode to the here package:

Do you: Have setwd() in your scripts? PLEASE STOP DOING THAT. This makes your script very fragile, hard-wired to exactly one time and place. As soon as you rename or move directories, it breaks. Or maybe you get a new computer? Or maybe someone else needs to run your code? [...] Classic problem presentation: Awkwardness around building paths and/or setting working directory in projects with subdirectories. Especially if you use R Markdown and knitr, which trips up alot of people with its default behavior of “working directory = directory where this file lives”. [...]

Install the here package:

install.packages("here")
library(here)
here()
here("construct","a","path")

Documentation of the here() function:

Starting with the current working directory during package load time, here will walk the directory hierarchy upwards until it finds a directory that satisfies at least one of the following conditions:

contains a file matching [.]Rproj$ with contents matching ^Version: in the first line

[... other options ...]

contains a directory .git

Once established, the root directory doesn't change during the active R session. here() then appends the arguments to the root directory.

The development version of the here package is available on github.

What about

What about files outside the project directory?

If you are loading or sourcing files outside the project directory, the recommended way is to use an environment variable at the Operating System level. Other users of your R code on different laptops or servers would need to set the same environment variable. The advantage is that it is portable.

data_path <- Sys.getenv("PROJECT_DATA")
df <- read.csv(file.path(data_path, "file_name.csv"))

Note: There is a long list of environmental variables which can affect an R session.

What about many projects sourcing each other?

It's time to create an R package.

edited Oct 19, 2022 at 7:45

answered Oct 31, 2017 at 23:12

Paul Rougieux

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10 Comments

abalter Over a year ago

This only works if you are sourceing or Rscripting a file in the same project tree. If you are calling a utility script for instance that lives somewhere else, this does not work.

Stefano Borini Over a year ago

Let's say that R is not made for actual reliable development. It is unbelievably hard to import relative to a given file path if you have multiple packages relying on each other. Your only option is to import everything from the root script globally. This is unacceptable for reliable development.

Stefano Borini Over a year ago

@PaulRougieux it's not about loading data. It's about importing other R files. e.g. having to use source(). compared to python import it's tragically bad, because you have to use very bad tricks to ensure a proper reliable import. This is very important when you have to write code that is production ready and thus have some degree of control.

Stefano Borini Over a year ago

@PaulRougieux it is also not a matter of package. You can't have nested hierarchies or have file A that imports file B within the same codebase (e.g. between pieces of code in different files that are part of the same package).

Paul Rougieux Over a year ago

That's not how an R package works, you have a package name space and functions call each other within that name space.

|

Jason Chau · Accepted Answer · 2020-05-12 05:42:17Z

9

Here is a custom function to obtain the path of a file in R, RStudio, or from an Rscript:

stub <- function() {}
thisPath <- function() {
  cmdArgs <- commandArgs(trailingOnly = FALSE)
  if (length(grep("^-f$", cmdArgs)) > 0) {
    # R console option
    normalizePath(dirname(cmdArgs[grep("^-f", cmdArgs) + 1]))[1]
  } else if (length(grep("^--file=", cmdArgs)) > 0) {
    # Rscript/R console option
    scriptPath <- normalizePath(dirname(sub("^--file=", "", cmdArgs[grep("^--file=", cmdArgs)])))[1]
  } else if (Sys.getenv("RSTUDIO") == "1") {
    # RStudio
    dirname(rstudioapi::getSourceEditorContext()$path)
  } else if (is.null(attr(stub, "srcref")) == FALSE) {
    # 'source'd via R console
    dirname(normalizePath(attr(attr(stub, "srcref"), "srcfile")$filename))
  } else {
    stop("Cannot find file path")
  }
}

https://gist.github.com/jasonsychau/ff6bc78a33bf3fd1c6bd4fa78bbf42e7

edited May 12, 2020 at 5:42

answered May 11, 2020 at 21:44

Jason Chau

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1 Comment

Vasilis Lemonidis Over a year ago

That is the only answer that works across all scenarios

Alexis Lucattini · Accepted Answer · 2022-11-11 06:49:47Z

9

If you're running an Rscript through the command-line etc

Rscript /path/to/script.R

The function below will assign this_file to /path/to/script

library(tidyverse)
get_this_file <- function() {
  commandArgs() %>%
    tibble::enframe(name = NULL) %>%
    tidyr::separate(
      col = value, into = c("key", "value"), sep = "=", fill = "right"
    ) %>%
    dplyr::filter(key == "--file") %>%
    dplyr::pull(value)
}
this_file <- get_this_file()
print(this_file)

edited Nov 11, 2022 at 6:49

answered Sep 27, 2018 at 5:30

Alexis Lucattini

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1 Comment

understorey Over a year ago

It does not work for me, it returns character(0)

Manuel Sánchez Mendoza · Accepted Answer · 2019-04-30 10:15:25Z

6

Another option to get current script path is funr::get_script_path() and you don't need run your script using RStudio.

answered Apr 30, 2019 at 10:15

Manuel Sánchez Mendoza

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6 Comments

abalter Over a year ago

What is funr?

Manuel Sánchez Mendoza Over a year ago

it's a package, you can find more information about it here. In R, even if you don't attach a package in the current working environment, you can use their function by the following way package::function()

Abel Callejo Over a year ago

Let's say you have a script located in /path/to/project/script.R and inside that script you have a statement funr::get_script_path(), it will return a value of /path/to/project. Note: It is returning the full directory path of the current file and not the full path of the current file which should supposedlty /path/to/project/script.R. The function worked for my case though.

Matthias Munz Over a year ago

Returns NULL for me in RStudio

stallingOne Over a year ago

Returns NULL for me in vscode

|

robertspierre · Accepted Answer · 2025-11-02 20:12:24Z

4

Use the this.path library:

this.path::this.dir()

It has built-in compatibility for different IDEs and different use cases (running, sourcing, etc.)

edited Nov 2 at 20:12

answered Jul 20 at 8:26

robertspierre

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Comments

shosaco · Accepted Answer · 2020-03-20 10:52:20Z

3

The following solves the problem for three cases: RStudio source Button, RStudio R console (source(...), if the file is still in the Source pane) or the OS console via Rscript:

this_file = gsub("--file=", "", commandArgs()[grepl("--file", commandArgs())])
if (length(this_file) > 0){
  wd <- paste(head(strsplit(this_file, '[/|\\]')[[1]], -1), collapse = .Platform$file.sep)
}else{
  wd <- dirname(rstudioapi::getSourceEditorContext()$path)
}

print(wd)

edited Mar 20, 2020 at 10:52

answered Jan 16, 2020 at 20:27

shosaco

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3 Comments

shosaco Over a year ago

adjusted for RStudio

user890739 Over a year ago

It seems to be the best answer, as it covers all the options of execution.

Konrad Rudolph Over a year ago

@user890739 No, it actually only covers a tiny fraction of the possible options. This code absolutely does not work reliably.

Jakub.Novotny · Accepted Answer · 2024-03-14 16:39:24Z

2

I really like @Juan Bernabe's answer, but I converted it to base R to avoid tidyverse dependency, and also slightly simplified the code.

get_current_file_path <- function(){
  
  this_file <- grep("^--file=", commandArgs(), value = TRUE)
  
  this_file <- gsub("^--file=", "", this_file)
  
  if (length(this_file) == 0) this_file <- rstudioapi::getSourceEditorContext()$path
  
  return(dirname(this_file))
  
}

answered Mar 14, 2024 at 16:39

Jakub.Novotny

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1 Comment

András Aszódi Over a year ago

+1 for simplicity and elegance. If the dirname(this_file) part is wrapped in a normalizePath(...) call then the absolute path is returned which could be quite useful in certain scenarios.

Dov Rosenberg · Accepted Answer · 2019-08-23 12:39:32Z

1

I had trouble with all of these because they rely on libraries that I couldn't use (because of packrat) until after setting the working directory (which was why I needed to get the path to begin with).

So, here's an approach that just uses base R. (EDITED to handle windows \ characters in addition to / in paths)

args = commandArgs()

scriptName = args[substr(args,1,7) == '--file=']

if (length(scriptName) == 0) {
  scriptName <- rstudioapi::getSourceEditorContext()$path
} else {
  scriptName <- substr(scriptName, 8, nchar(scriptName))
}

pathName = substr(
  scriptName, 
  1, 
  nchar(scriptName) - nchar(strsplit(scriptName, '.*[/|\\]')[[1]][2])
)

edited Aug 23, 2019 at 12:39

answered Aug 21, 2019 at 15:23

Dov Rosenberg

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Comments

Mohamed Moghairib · Accepted Answer · 2020-04-08 03:29:38Z

1

The following code gives the directory of the running Rscript if you are running it either from Rstudio or from the command line using Rscript command:

if (rstudioapi::isAvailable()) {
  if (require('rstudioapi') != TRUE) {
    install.packages('rstudioapi')
  }else{
    library(rstudioapi) # load it
  }
 wdir <- dirname(getActiveDocumentContext()$path)
}else{
 wdir <- getwd()
}

setwd(wdir)

edited Apr 8, 2020 at 3:29

answered Apr 7, 2020 at 18:17

Mohamed Moghairib

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Comments

PM. · Accepted Answer · 2024-06-06 10:51:04Z

1

There's now a package for this

library(scriptName)
print(current_filename())
print(dirname(current_filename()))

answered Jun 6, 2024 at 10:51

PM.

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4 Comments

giordano Apr 8 at 12:33

Also this gives me NULL.

PM. Apr 9 at 13:27

It would help to describe more about what you did to get the NULL. It still works for me. I am sourcing a script in RStudio. scriptName v1.0.1. It does give NULL if I run the script line-by-line rather than sourcing the whole script. I have not tried running from the command line.

giordano Apr 11 at 7:04

I use Emacs/ESS. Since last update of ESS (from 2022 version to February/2025) getwd() gives the path level two levels higher than the script level. I assume that ESS does try to find a possible project structuer like git or similar to define a working directory. Nevertheless, I tried to look for a function which retrieves the path of the r-script. I tried several packages (scriptName, box, funr) but the give me all NULL. At the end I had to set a Lisp-Code in my Emacs-config to solve this problem.

giordano Apr 11 at 7:07

I found this in reddit which says that Unfortunately R fundamentally has no way of getting the path of the current R script that works in all situations. It seems that there is no solution yet for non RStudio user.

L Tyrone · Accepted Answer · 2024-08-13 03:57:12Z

1

The following code worked for me in these situations:

interactive
sourced in Rstudio console
sourced in Rstudio as background job
sourced from R GUI (not Rstudio)
from CLI (PowerShell) via Rscript

{if (any(str_detect(commandArgs(),
                    "interactive")))
  rstudioapi::getSourceEditorContext()$path
  else if (any(str_detect(commandArgs(),
                          "--file")))
  commandArgs() %>%
    .[str_which(.,
                "^--file")] %>%
    str_split_i("=",-1)
  else
    utils::getSrcFilename(\(dummy) {dummy},
                          full.names=TRUE)} %>%
  dirname()

edited Aug 13, 2024 at 3:57

L Tyrone

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answered Aug 12, 2024 at 22:12

Bogdan Micu

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Comments

stevec · Accepted Answer · 2019-12-24 02:56:58Z

-2

If you don't want to use (or have to remember) code, simply hover over the script and the path will appear

answered Dec 24, 2019 at 2:56

stevec

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