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xfun (version 0.60)

Supporting Functions for Packages Maintained by 'Yihui Xie'

Description

Miscellaneous functions commonly used in other packages maintained by 'Yihui Xie'.

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Install

install.packages('xfun')

Monthly Downloads

1,406,738

Version

0.60

License

MIT + file LICENSE

Issues

0

Pull Requests

1

Stars

155

Forks

30

Maintainer

Yihui Xie

Last Published

July 9th, 2026

Functions in xfun (0.60)

decimal_dot

Evaluate an expression after forcing the decimal point to be a dot
cache_exec

Cache the execution of an expression in memory or on disk
do_once

Perform a task once in an R session
exit_call

Call on.exit() in a parent function
env_option

Retrieve a global option from both options() and environment variables
embed_file

Embed a file, multiple files, or directory on an HTML page
divide_chunk

Divide chunk options from the code chunk body
fenced_block

Create a fenced block in Markdown
download_cache

Download a file from a URL and cache it on disk
file_ext

Manipulate filename extensions
existing_files

Find file paths that exist
download_file

Try various methods to download a file
gsub_file

Search and replace strings in files
grep_sub

Perform replacement with gsub() on elements matched from grep()
file_rename

Rename files and directories
format_bytes

Format numbers of bytes using a specified unit
file_string

Read a text file and concatenate the lines by '\n'
lazy_save

Save objects to files and lazy-load them
is_sub_path

Test if a path is a subpath of a dir
join_words

Join multiple words into a single string
find_globals

Find global/local variables in R code
github_releases

Get the tags of GitHub releases of a repository
is_ascii

Check if a character vector consists of entirely ASCII characters
is_blank

Test if a character vector consists of blank strings
html_tag

Tools for HTML tags
from_root

Get the relative path of a path in a project relative to the current working directory
in_dir

Evaluate an expression under a specified working directory
install_dir

Install a source package from a directory
install_github

An alias of remotes::install_github()
is_web_path

Test if a path is a web path
is_R_CMD_check

Some utility functions for checking packages
is_abs_path

Test if paths are relative or absolute
msg_cat

Generate a message with cat()
mime_type

Get the MIME types of files
native_encode

Try to use the system native encoding to represent a character vector
normalize_path

Normalize paths
new_app

Create or stop a local web application
news2md

Convert package news to the Markdown format
mark_dirs

Mark some paths as directories
md5

Calculate the MD5 checksums of R objects
md_table

Generate a simple Markdown pipe table
magic_path

Find a file or directory under a root directory
pkg_bib

Generate BibTeX bibliography databases for R packages
optipng

Run OptiPNG on all PNG files under a directory
is_windows

Test for types of operating systems
post_release

Perform post-CRAN-release routine tasks
pkg_attach

Attach or load packages, and automatically install missing packages if requested
numbers_to_words

Convert numbers to English words
proj_root

Return the (possible) root directory of a project
proc_kill

Kill a process and (optionally) all its child processes
process_file

Read a text file, process the text with a function, and write the text back
parse_only

Parse R code and do not keep the source
record

Run R code and record the results
rand_unit

Pseudo-random numbers on [0, 1) based on a linear congruential generator
record_print

Print methods for record()
raw_string

Print a character vector in its raw form
random_port

Find a random available TCP port
prose_index

Find the indices of lines in Markdown that are prose (not code blocks)
read_bin

Read all records of a binary file as a raw vector by default
protect_math

Protect math expressions in pairs of backticks in Markdown
read_all

Read all text files and concatenate their content
read_utf8

Read / write files encoded in UTF-8
same_path

Test if two paths are the same after they are normalized
serve_dir

Serve a static directory
retry

Retry calling a function for a number of times
session_info

An alternative to sessionInfo() to print session information
rstudio_type

Type a character vector into the RStudio source editor
rename_seq

Rename files with a sequential numeric prefix
set_envvar

Set environment variables
rest_api

Get data from a REST API
relative_path

Get the relative path of a path relative to a directory
rev_check

Run R CMD check on the reverse dependencies of a package
taml_load

A simple YAML reader and writer
str_wrap

Wrap character vectors
tabset

Represent a (recursive) list with (nested) tabsets
split_source

Split source lines into complete expressions
strip_html

Strip HTML tags
split_lines

Split a character vector by line breaks
shrink_images

Shrink images to a maximum width
upload_imgur

Upload an image to imgur.com
tinify

Use the Tinify API to compress PNG and JPEG images
system3

A customized wrapper for system2()
strict_list

Strict lists
submit_cran

Submit a source package to CRAN
try_error

Try an expression and see if it throws an error
tojson

A simple JSON serializer
tree

Turn the output of str() into a tree diagram
yaml_load

Read YAML data
yaml_body

Partition the YAML metadata and the body in a document
valid_syntax

Check if the syntax of the code is valid
url_accessible

Test if a URL is accessible
url_destination

Get the final destination of a URL
url_filename

Extract filenames from a URLs
try_silent

Try to evaluate an expression silently
upload_ftp

Upload to an FTP server via curl
alnum_id

Generate ID strings
Rscript

Run the commands Rscript and R CMD
broken_packages

Find out broken packages and reinstall them
base64_encode

Encode/decode data into/from base64 encoding.
base64_uri

Generate the Data URI for a file
attr2

Obtain an attribute of an object without partial matching
browser_dom

Execute JavaScript on an HTML page via a headless browser and dump the DOM
Rscript_call

Call a function in a new R session via Rscript()
bg_process

Start a background process
base_pkgs

Get base R package names
dir_exists

Test the existence of files and directories
browser_print

Print a web page to PDF/PNG/JPEG
csv_options

Parse comma-separated chunk options
bump_version

Bump version numbers
del_empty_dir

Delete an empty directory
dir_create

Create a directory recursively by default
crandalf_check

Submit check jobs to crandalf
cache_rds

Cache the value of an R expression to an RDS file