rpkg

Install one or several R packages from the terminal with rpkg, avoiding a graphical package manager and keeping package acquisition in command-line workflows. Created by Alberson Miranda, it is a lightweight Rust command-line wrapper around Rscript that turns package installation into concise terminal commands.

Users can select mirrors by country with fuzzy matching, receive numbered choices when several matches exist, or let rpkg choose the best match automatically in scripts and CI environments. Custom repository URLs can be placed ahead of CRAN, including services such as R-Universe, while explicit source flags install projects from GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, or Codeberg using OWNER/REPO names.

The tool can target a chosen library with -l or --library and checks whether the default R library is writable when no destination is supplied. If that location cannot accept packages, it uses R_LIBS_USER, creates the personal library when necessary, prepends it to R’s library paths, and also applies that location when --update is used. These behaviors suit R developers, data analysts, and automation scripts that need repeatable package installation across terminal sessions.

Version 0.3.2 provides prebuilt x64 Windows ZIP and MSI packages, as well as shell, PowerShell, and Homebrew distribution options. It runs on x64 Windows and is released under the MIT License.