{workspace}

Welcome to {workspace}, where magic happens! 🎇 This package aims to make your RStudio sessions more exciting and efficient by allowing you to effortlessly create and restore dev environments.

Installation 

devtools::install_github("KoderKow/workspace")

Example scenario

Imagine it’s a brand new day, and you’re starting a fresh RStudio session! 🌟

The workspace is clean and empty:

ls()

#> character(0)

8 hours later

Wow! It has been a long and challenging day of development

Let’s review what you’ve accomplished:

a <- 1
b <- 2

ls()

#> "a" "b"

Fascinating, isn’t it? 🤩

Now, let’s save our progress using the {workspace} package! 📦

workspace_save()

#> v Created the folder '_workspace' in the current working directory
#> v '_workspace' added to '.gitignore'
#> v '_workspace' added to '.Rbuildignore'
#> v Restore point created: _workspace/ws-2023-06-06-23-34-12_.qs

Assuming this is the first time using {workspace} in this project, let’s go over what is happening here 👨‍🏫

  1. The function creates a folder named ’_workspace’ to store restore point files
  2. If your project has a ‘.gitignore’ file, the ’_workspace’ folder is automatically excluded
  3. Similarly, if your project has a ‘.Rbuildignore’ file, the ’_workspace’ folder is ignored during builds
  4. The function generates a restore point file, and a message confirms the successful creation

Time to go shutdown RStudio and go home for the day 😴

rm(list = ls())

ls()

#> character(0)

Morning time 🌞

It’s a new day, lets bring back the environment we ended yesterday with. Using workspace_restore() let’s restore from the latest restore point

workspace_restore()

#> * Would you like to use the latest or a specific restore point?
#> 
#> 1: Latest
#> 2: List out the restore points
#> 
#> Selection: 1
#> * WARNING! Restoring will reset your global environment. Continue?
#> 
#> 1: Yes
#> 2: No
#> 
#> Selection: 1
#> v Restore complete

Let’s confirm the variables are back

ls()

#> "a" "b"

Excellent! Let’s pretend the following took use hours to create and we want to save before getting some lunch 🌮

d <- data.frame(
  a = a,
  b = b
)

workspace_save("data created")

#> v Restore point created: _workspace/ws-2023-06-06-23-35-33_data created.qs

View of what variables we have

ls()

#> "a" "b" "d"

Alright, were back from lunch and we’re ready to … oh no! RStudio froze! We are about to lose our entire environment

rm(list = ls())

ls()

#> character(0)

Good thing we created a restore point after a breakthrough dev moment! Using workspace_restore() let’s restore by viewing all restore points in a list

workspace_restore()

#> * Would you like to use the latest or a specific restore point?
#> 
#> 1: Latest
#> 2: List out the restore points
#> 
#> Selection: 2
#> * Enter a number corresponding to the wanted workspace restore point:
#> 
#> 1: 2023-06-06 23:34:12
#> 2: 2023-06-06 23:35:33 | data created
#> 
#> Selection: 2
#> * WARNlNG! Restoring will reset your global environment. Continue?
#> 
#> 1: Yes
#> 2: No
#> 
#> Selection: 1
#> v Restore complete

Is it back? 😥

d

#>   a b
#> 1 1 2

It’s back! Woo! 💃

Contributing

Contributing is welcome! This package uses the precommit framework and passing the precommit test for PRs is required.

remotes::install_github("lorenzwalthert/precommit")
precommit::install_precommit()
precommit::use_precommit()

Recognitions

  • Thanks to save.image() for frustrating me enough to make this package
  • {qs} package for the fast save/read speeds
  • {qsimage} package for the code utilizing {qs} to mimic the actions of save.image()
  • Jason Carey (@jasoncareyco95) for the inspiration for creating this package