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This might be a very basic question, but have not found a convincing answer yet. When executing an R script within the R environment, I can either do source(foo.R) or system("Rscript foo.R"). Is there any difference at all between the two approaches, and if so how do the two approaches compare?
They’re fundamentally different in their effects.
source("foo.R")tells your current R process to take its input from"foo.R".system("Rscript foo.R")uses an operating system command to launch a separate R process, within which the contents of"foo.R"are evaluated.The
Rscriptcall won’t directly affect your current R session at all, except that it will by default print the output of that other R session on your current console. (You can disable this in yoursystem()call by settingshow.output.on.console=FALSE).