r-pkg-rollback-with-renv.md

How to handle package upgrades with rollback as an option?

The safest approach: lock your project with renv

This gives you a per-project package library + a lockfile, so you can update without irreversably wrecking your packages and so you can roll back instantly.

In your project directory:

install.packages("renv")
renv::init()          # creates renv/ + renv.lock, uses a project library

Then install your set (including GitHub packages) into the project library:

renv::install(c(
  "skimr", "data.table", "zipcodeR", "qs", "tidyverse",
  "janitor", "lubridate", "tigris"
))

renv::install("timathomas/colorout")
renv::install("irworkshop/campfin")

renv::snapshot()      # writes exact versions to renv.lock

If you update later and something breaks:

renv::restore()       # returns you to the last snapshot

What to do right now at the update prompt

If you don’t have renv set up yet and you’re worried about global changes:

• Choose “3: None” to skip upgrades for now.
• Then set up renv and reinstall inside the project (so updates are isolated).

If you do need to get past this install and don’t want to skip, the next-lowest-risk choice is typically:

• “2: CRAN packages only” (less chaotic than “All”, because GitHub packages can change faster)