Startup {base} | R Documentation

## Initialization at Start of an R Session

### Description

In R, the startup mechanism is as follows. If a file ``.Renviron`', or failing that ``~/.Renviron`', exists, it is sourced, usually to set environmental variables. This is suppressed by the flag `--no-environ`. Then R searches for the site-wide startup profile unless the command line option `--no-site-file` was given. The name of this file is taken from the value of the ``R_PROFILE`' environment variable. If that variable is unset, the default is ``$R_HOME/etc/Rprofile`'.

Then, unless `--no-init-file` was given, R searches for a file called ``.Rprofile`' in the current directory or in the user's home directory (in that order) and sources it.

It also loads a saved image from ``.RData`' if there is one (unless `--no-restore` was specified).

Finally, if a function `.First` exists, it is executed as `.First()`.

The functions `.First` and `.Last` can be defined in the appropriate startup profiles or reside in ``.RData`'.

The command-line flag `--vanilla` implies `--no-init-file`, `--no-restore` and `--no-environ`.

### Usage

    .First <- function() { ...... }

    .Rprofile <startup file>

### See Also

`.Last` for final actions before termination.

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