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Path to shared data/config directories

Source: R/data.R
site_data_dir.Rd

site_data_dir returns full path to the user-shared data dir for this application. site_config_dir returns full path to the user-specific configuration directory for this application which returns the same path as site data directory in Windows and Mac but a different one for Unix. Typical user-shared data directories are:

Usage

site_data_dir(
  appname = NULL,
  appauthor = appname,
  version = NULL,
  multipath = FALSE,
  expand = TRUE,
  os = NULL
)

site_config_dir(
  appname = NULL,
  appauthor = appname,
  version = NULL,
  multipath = FALSE,
  expand = TRUE,
  os = NULL
)

Arguments

appname

is the name of application. If NULL, just the system directory is returned.

appauthor

(only required and used on Windows) is the name of the appauthor or distributing body for this application. Typically it is the owning company name. This falls back to appname.

version

is an optional version path element to append to the path. You might want to use this if you want multiple versions of your app to be able to run independently. If used, this would typically be "<major>.<minor>". Only applied when appname is not NULL.

multipath

is an optional parameter only applicable to *nix which indicates that the entire list of data dirs should be returned By default, the first directory is returned

expand

If TRUE (the default) will expand the R_LIBS specifiers with their equivalents. See R_LIBS() for list of all possibly specifiers.

os

Operating system whose conventions are used to construct the requested directory. Possible values are "win", "mac", "unix". If NULL (the default) then the current OS will be used.

Details

  • Mac OS X: /Library/Application Support/<AppName>

  • Unix: /usr/local/share:/usr/share/

  • Win XP: C:\\Documents and Settings\\All Users\\Application Data\\<AppAuthor>\\<AppName>

  • Vista: (Fail! C:\\ProgramData is a hidden system directory on Vista.)

  • Win 7: C:\\ProgramData\\<AppAuthor>\\<AppName>. Hidden, but writeable on Win 7.

Unix also specifies a separate location for user-shared configuration data in $XDG_CONFIG_DIRS.

  • Unix: /etc/xdg/<AppName>, in $XDG_CONFIG_HOME if defined

For Unix, this returns the first default. Set the multipath=TRUE to guarantee returning all directories.

Warning

Do not use this on Windows. See the note above for why.