commonr - JavaScript-style module management for R

Organize your R project on the filesystem level without creating packages! commonr is an R implementation of the JavaScript CommonJS Module/1.1 specification that lets you create modules as R files in the filesystem without having to worry about cluttering your global environment with lots of source('myfile.R') calls.

A package is simply defined as an R script file where all symbols that should be exported are set to the magical exports variable - exports could for example be just one function (see add.R and increment.R below) or a list object (see io.R below). You can load packages simply by calling require.r with the relative path to the package file. commonr automatically takes care of resolving paths relative to the script file that performs the require.r calls so that your R scripts will be callable from any working directory!

Example

modules/math/add.R:

exports = function(a, b) {
    a + b
}

modules/math/increment.R:

add = require.r('add')

exports = function(a) {
    add(a, 1)
}

modules/io.R:

exports$fprintf = function(file, format, ...) {
    cat(sprintf(format, ...), file=file)
}

exports$printf = function(format, ...) {
    exports$fprintf(stdout(), format, ...)
}

test.R:

library(commonr)

# modules are located in the modules/ subdirectory
require.r.config(basedir='modules')

# load the module located in modules/math/add.R into the variable add
add = require.r('math/add')

# load the function printf from the module io located in modules/io.R into the variable printf
printf = require.r('io')$printf

printf("Freedom is the right to say that 2 + 2 = %d", add(2,2))

Installation

Using devtools

If you have devtools installed, simply do:

    > library(devtools)
    > install_github("sseemayer/commonr", subdir="commonr")

Manual

Clone this git repository and use R CMD INSTALL to install:

    $ git clone https://github.com/sseemayer/commonr.git
    $ R CMD INSTALL commonr/commonr

License

MIT