Restart R within Rstudio

Question

I'm trying to call a simple python script from within R using system2(). I've read some information I found vague that said if 'too much' memory is used, it won't work.

If I load a large dataset and use some information in it to use as arguments to pass into system2(), it will only work if I manually click "Restart R" in call Rstudio.

What I want:

df <- read.csv('some_large_file.csv')
###extracting some info called 'args_vec'
for(arg in args_vec){
    system2('python', args)
}

This won't work as is. The for loop is simply passed over.

What I need:

df <- read.csv('some_large_file.csv')
###extracting some info called 'args_vec'
###something that 'restarts' R
for(arg in args_vec){
    system2('python', args)
}

This answer doesn't quite get what I want. Namely, it doesn't work for me within Rstudio and it calls "system" (which presents the same problem as "system2" in this case). In fact, when I put the answer referenced above in my Rprofile.site file, it just immediately closed rstudio:

I tried the suggestion as a normal function (rather than using "makeActiveBinding", and it didn't quite work.

##restart R in r session  -- doesn't work
makeActiveBinding("refresh", function() { system("R --save"); q("no") }, .GlobalEnv)

##nor did this:
refresh <- function() { system("R --save"); q("no") }

I tried a number of variations of these two options above, but this is getting long for what feels like a simple question. There's a lot I don't yet understand about the startup process and "makeActiveBinding" is a bit mysterious. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Are you sure that you really need to restart the whole R? If you use rm(list=ls()) which cleans the workspace, and maybe manual garbage collection with gc() just in case, that should be enough? — Jouni Helske
@BenHunter it's immediately closing RStudio because you're calling q after restarting. Take out the call to q and it should do exactly the same thing as selecting Restart R in RStudio. — Matthew Plourde
@Hemmo, I know that's an option, and in this case it might be a good choice, but I'd really like to know how to solve this, as is, without losing my workspace (or saving, removing, and then reloading it). — Ben Hunter
@Matthew Plourde, that almost works, but Rstudio just reloads and doesn't give me a prompt. Specifically, all startup activity runs again, I can see packages from my Rprofile get loaded, but I don't see a ">" prompt. — Ben Hunter
@BenHunter, funny, I do get a prompt. Are you using the active binding or the function way? As a side note, using an active binding in this situation is playing with fire and unnecessary---I wouldn't advise it. — Matthew Plourde

mgoldwasser mgoldwasser · Accepted Answer · 2014-09-09T14:53:53

In Rstudio, you can restart the R session by:

command/ctrl + shift + F10

You can also use:

.rs.restartR()

Restart R within Rstudio

4 Answers