Rucksack

Rucksack carries a user-level R and RStudio setup between computers.

Install the local source package with:

install.packages("Rucksack_0.3.0.tar.gz", repos = NULL, type = "source")

Rtools is not required because the package contains no compiled R code.

Install the development version from GitHub with:

remotes::install_github("jzadra/Rucksack")

Rucksack::backup_setup(include_renviron = TRUE)

Rucksack::preview_restore("R-setup-COMPUTER-20260918-120000.tar.gz")
Rucksack::restore_setup("R-setup-COMPUTER-20260918-120000.tar.gz")

To preview and then install packages missing from the destination system:

Rucksack::preview_restore(
  "R-setup-COMPUTER-20260918-120000.tar.gz",
  install_packages = TRUE
)

Rucksack::restore_setup(
  "R-setup-COMPUTER-20260918-120000.tar.gz",
  install_packages = TRUE
)

Rucksack records available installation provenance. Missing CRAN packages are installed from the configured repository, Bioconductor packages through BiocManager, and GitHub packages from their recorded owner and repository. Restoration installs the current available version rather than the backed-up version or GitHub commit.

Close RStudio and perform the actual restore from a plain R session so RStudio does not overwrite newly restored preferences when it exits.

Backups can contain:

• .Rprofile and .Renviron
• RStudio preferences, snippets, keybindings, and custom themes
• Actual per-user Windows .ttf and .otf font files
• An installed-package inventory and R session information
• The Windows font installer and persistent font loader

On Windows, fonts are restored to %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Fonts, registered under HKCU, loaded into the active font table, and announced with WM_FONTCHANGE. Rucksack installs the persistent loader at %LOCALAPPDATA%\Rucksack\scripts\load_user_fonts.ps1 and creates the current-user Startup shortcut Load User Fonts.lnk, ensuring the fonts are loaded again after each login. Administrator rights are not required and C:\Windows\Fonts is never modified.

A backup containing an unredacted .Renviron may contain credentials. The archive is compressed, not encrypted.