Rprofile.site assignments occur in base package (PR#2448)
bert_gunter@merck.com wrote:
Not sure whether this is a feature or bug -- but it does not appear to be documented. R1.6.1 on Windows NT 4.00.1381 Objects assigned in the Rprofile.site file (e.g. foo<-'something') are put into package:base not .GlobalEnv on startup. Objects assigned in the .Rprofile file are put into .GlobalEnv. This doesn't seem consistent to me. The objects exist in base only for the duration of the session -- they are not written permanently (of course). Anything in the (saved) .GlobalEnv will persist.
It *is* documented in, e.g., ?Rprofile: "Then R searches for the site-wide startup profile unless the command line option --no-site-file was given. The name of this file is taken from the value of the R_PROFILE environment variable. If this variable is unset, the default is `$R_HOME/etc/Rprofile.site', which is used if it exists (which it does not in a ``factory-fresh'' installation). This code is loaded into package base. Then, unless --no-init-file was given, R searches for a file called `.Rprofile' in the current directory or in the user's home directory (in that order) and sources it into the user workspace." Uwe Ligges
The workaround(?) is trivial: source() in a file with the assignments in the Rprofile.site file. Assignments in the sourced file are done in .GlobalEnv. Cheers, Bert Gunter Biometrics Research RY 84-16 Merck & Company P.O. Box 2000 Rahway, NJ 07065-0900 Phone: (732) 594-7765 mailto: bert_gunter@merck.com "The business of the statistician is to catalyze the scientific learning process." -- George E.P. Box