From my perspective, which is a unix-alike perspective, Rscript makes R useable
in exactly the same way as other unix style scripting languages such as perl,
tcsh, bash, etc. This is useful, and a good thing. If I remember (and
understood) correctly, it is why Rscript was introduced, later in R's history
than BATCH.
Scripts run using Rscript can be (slightly) more self-contained, which I
suppose might or might not be an advantage, depending on one's needs:
To run an R script using Rscript, I type
./myRscript.r
at the command line (less typing), whereas with batch mode, it has to be
R CMD BATCH myRscript.r
(more typing) but if I want any R options applied, such as --no-restore or
--no-save, I include them within the script when using Rscript, but have to put
them on the command line outside the script when using BATCH.
One can actually execute an R command at the shell prompt using Rscript, which
can't be done with BATCH:
[296]% Rscript -e 3+4
[1] 7
[298]% Rscript -e 'sqrt(2)'
[1] 1.414214
If I want to pass custom parameters to the script (script-specific parameters
of my own that I put on the command line), the syntax for either supplying them
or parsing them might be different. I'm not sure, since I don't do this very
often, and never use CMD BATCH. But it would be worth checking.
-Don
--
Don MacQueen
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
7000 East Ave., L-627
Livermore, CA 94550
925-423-1062
Lab cell 925-724-7509
On 7/25/18, 8:22 AM, "R-help on behalf of Rich Shepard"
<r-help-boun...@r-project.org on behalf of rshep...@appl-ecosys.com> wrote:
On Wed, 25 Jul 2018, Bert Gunter wrote:
> "Within R one can use source() to run a batch file of R commands, while R
> CMD BATCH and Rscript are run from the command line. Is this correct?"
>
> Yes.
Bert,
Thanks for confirming.
> I think your query answers your query: You use Rscript when you want to
use
> R in the command environment, perhaps as part of an analytical pipeline;
> and you source an R file when you want to work within R.
That's a given. Why would I prefer Rscript over R CMD BATCH, or
vice-versa? I did not see much difference between the two in their help
files.
Regards,
Rich
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