\HeaderA{source}{Read R Code from a File or a Connection}{source}
\keyword{file}{source}
\keyword{programming}{source}
\keyword{connection}{source}
\begin{Description}\relax
\code{source} causes \R{} to accept its input from the named file or URL
(the name must be quoted) or connection.  Input is read and
\code{\LinkA{parse}{parse}}d by from that file until the end of the file is
reached, then the parsed expressions are evaluated sequentially in the
chosen environment.
\end{Description}
\begin{Usage}
\begin{verbatim}
source(file, local = FALSE, echo = verbose, print.eval = echo,
       verbose = getOption("verbose"),
       prompt.echo = getOption("prompt"),
       max.deparse.length = 150, chdir = FALSE,
       encoding = getOption("encoding"),
       continue.echo = getOption("continue"),
       skip.echo = 0, keep.source = getOption("keep.source"))
\end{verbatim}
\end{Usage}
\begin{Arguments}
\begin{ldescription}
\item[\code{file}] a connection or a character string giving the pathname
of the file or URL to read from.  \code{""} indicates the connection
\code{\LinkA{stdin}{stdin}()}.
\item[\code{local}] if \code{local} is \code{FALSE}, the statements scanned
are evaluated in the user's workspace (the global environment),
otherwise in the environment calling \code{source}.
\item[\code{echo}] logical; if \code{TRUE}, each expression is printed
after parsing, before evaluation.
\item[\code{print.eval}] logical; if \code{TRUE}, the result of
\code{eval(i)} is printed for each expression \code{i}; defaults
to the value of \code{echo}.
\item[\code{verbose}] if \code{TRUE}, more diagnostics (than just
\code{echo = TRUE}) are printed during parsing and evaluation of
input, including extra info for \bold{each} expression.
\item[\code{prompt.echo}] character; gives the prompt to be used if
\code{echo = TRUE}.
\item[\code{max.deparse.length}] integer; is used only if \code{echo} is
\code{TRUE} and gives the maximal number of characters output for
the deparse of a single expression.
\item[\code{chdir}] logical; if \code{TRUE} and \code{file} is a pathname,
the \R{} working directory is temporarily changed to the directory
containing \code{file} for evaluating.
\item[\code{encoding}] character vector.  The encoding(s) to be assumed when
\code{file} is a character string: see \code{\LinkA{file}{file}}.  A
possible value is \code{"unknown"} when the encoding is guesses: see
the \sQuote{Details}.
\item[\code{continue.echo}] character; gives the prompt to use on
continuation lines if \code{echo = TRUE}.
\item[\code{skip.echo}] integer; how many comment lines at the start of the
file to skip if \code{echo = TRUE}.
\item[\code{keep.source}] logical: should the source formatting be retained
when echo expressions, if possible?
\end{ldescription}
\end{Arguments}
\begin{Details}\relax
Note that running code via \code{source} differs in a few respects
from entering it at the \R{} command line.  Since expressions are not
executed at the top level, auto-printing is not done.  So you will
need to include explicit \code{print} calls for things you want to be
printed (and remember that this includes plotting by \pkg{lattice},
FAQ Q7.22).  Since the complete file is parsed before any of it is
run, syntax errors result in none of the code being run. If an error
occurs in running a syntactically correct script, anything assigned
into the workspace by code that has been run will be kept (just as
from the command line), but diagnostic information such as
\code{\LinkA{traceback}{traceback}()} will contain additional calls to
\code{eval.with.vis}, an undocumented internal function.

All versions of \R{} accept input from a connection with end of line
marked by LF (as used on Unix), CRLF (as used on DOS/Windows)
or CR (as used on classic Mac OS).  The final line can be incomplete, that
is missing the final end-of-line marker.

If \code{\LinkA{options}{options}}("keep.source") is true (the default in
interactive use), the source of functions is kept so they can be
listed exactly as input. This imposes a limit of 128K bytes on the
function size and a nesting limit of 265.  Use \code{keep.source =
  FALSE} when these limits might take effect: if exceeded they generate
an error.

This paragraph applies if \code{file} is a filename (rather than a
connection).  If \code{encoding = "unknown"}, an attempt is made to
guess the encoding.  The result of \code{\LinkA{localeToCharset}{localeToCharset}()} is
used as a guide.  If \code{encoding} has two or more elements, they
are tried in turn until the file/URL can be read without error in the
trial encoding.  If an actual \code{encoding} is specified (rather than the
default or \code{"unknown"}) then character strings in the result will be
translated to the current encoding and marked as such (see
\code{\LinkA{Encoding}{Encoding}}) in Latin-1 and UTF-8 locales.

If \code{file} is a connection (including one specified by \code{""},
it is not possible to re-encode the input inside \code{source}, and so
the \code{encoding} argument is just used to mark character strings in the
parsed input: see \code{\LinkA{parse}{parse}}.

Unlike input from a console, lines in the file or on a connection can
contain an unlimited number of characters.

When \code{skip.echo > 0}, that many comment lines at the start of
the file will not be echoed.  This does not affect the execution of
the code at all.  If there are executable lines within the first
\code{skip.echo} lines, echoing will start with the first of them.

If \code{echo} is true and a deparsed expression exceeds
\code{max.deparse.length}, that many characters are output followed by
\code{ .... [TRUNCATED] }.
\end{Details}
\begin{References}\relax
Becker, R. A., Chambers, J. M. and Wilks, A. R. (1988)
\emph{The New S Language}.
Wadsworth \& Brooks/Cole.
\end{References}
\begin{SeeAlso}\relax
\code{\LinkA{demo}{demo}} which uses \code{source};
\code{\LinkA{eval}{eval}}, \code{\LinkA{parse}{parse}} and \code{\LinkA{scan}{scan}};
\code{\LinkA{options}{options}("keep.source")}.

\code{\LinkA{sys.source}{sys.source}} which is a streamlined version to source a
file into an environment.
\end{SeeAlso}
\begin{Examples}
\begin{ExampleCode}
## If you want to source() a bunch of files, something like
## the following may be useful:
 sourceDir <- function(path, trace = TRUE, ...) {
    for (nm in list.files(path, pattern = "\\.[RrSsQq]$")) {
       if(trace) cat(nm,":")           
       source(file.path(path, nm), ...)
       if(trace) cat("\n")
    }
 }
\end{ExampleCode}
\end{Examples}

