Sys.setenv package:base R Documentation _S_e_t _o_r _U_n_s_e_t _E_n_v_i_r_o_n_m_e_n_t _V_a_r_i_a_b_l_e_s _D_e_s_c_r_i_p_t_i_o_n: 'Sys.setenv' sets environment variables (for other processes called from within R or future calls to 'Sys.getenv' from this R process). 'Sys.unsetenv' removes environment variables. _U_s_a_g_e: Sys.setenv(...) Sys.unsetenv(x) _A_r_g_u_m_e_n_t_s: ...: named arguments with values coercible to a character string. x: a character vector, or an object coercible to character. _D_e_t_a_i_l_s: The names 'setenv' and 'putenv' come from different Unix traditions: R also has 'Sys.putenv', but this is now deprecated. The internal code uses 'setenv' if available, otherwise 'putenv'. Non-standard R names must be quoted in 'Sys.setenv': see the examples. Most platforms (and POSIX) do not allow names containing '"="'. There may be system-specific limits on the maximum length of the values of individual environment variables or of all environment variables. _V_a_l_u_e: A logical vector, with elements being true if (un)setting the corresponding variable succeeded. (For 'Sys.unsetenv' this includes attempting to remove a non-existent variable.) _N_o_t_e: Not all systems need support 'Sys.setenv' (although all known current platforms do) nor 'Sys.unsetenv'. If 'Sys.unsetenv' is not supported, it will at least try to set the value of the environment variable to '""', with a warning. _S_e_e _A_l_s_o: 'Sys.getenv', Startup for ways to set environment variables for the R session. 'setwd' for the working directory. The help for 'environment variables' lists many of the environment variables used by R. _E_x_a_m_p_l_e_s: print(Sys.setenv(R_TEST="testit", "A+C"=123)) # `A+C` could also be used Sys.getenv("R_TEST") Sys.unsetenv("R_TEST") # may warn and not succeed Sys.getenv("R_TEST", unset=NA)