R Observatory: Metrics for processx version 3.9.0

Balamuta, James Joseph

doi:10.5281/zenodo.21843040

processx

3.9.0Package record

Execute and Control System Processes

86packages dependsuggested by 49

15.4Mdownloads / year

79.0%test coverage

13/13flavors OK

Overview

About

Maintained by Gábor CsárdiCRAN page ↗GitHub ↗Website ↗Issues ↗Declared funders: Ascent Digital Services and Posit Software, PBC

Tools to run system processes in the background. It can check if a background process is running; wait on a background process to finish; get the exit status of finished processes; kill background processes. It can read the standard output and error of the processes, using non-blocking connections. 'processx' can poll a process for standard output or error, with a timeout. It can also poll several processes at once.

Changes in 3.9.0

New experimental pipeline R6 class for running two or more processes connected by kernel-level pipes, like a Unix shell pipeline (cmd1 | cmd2 | cmd3). Data flows directly between child processes without passing through R. Works on Unix and Windows (#280).
New "Process cleanup" article.
New linux_pdeathsig argument to process$new(): on Linux, the child process receives the specified signal when the parent R process exits. Set to TRUE for SIGTERM, or pass an integer signal number directly (e.g. tools::SIGKILL). Ignored on non-Linux platforms (#36).
New process$get_end_time() method returns the time when the process exited as a POSIXct, or NULL if it is still running (#218).
process$new() and run() now support pty = TRUE on Windows 10 version 1809 and later, in addition to Unix. The Windows implementation uses the ConPTY API (CreatePseudoConsole). The API is loaded dynamically so processx continues to load on older Windows and emits a clear error if pty = TRUE is requested on an unsupported version (#231).

Show all changes in 3.9.0Hide the rest of the changes in 3.9.0

run() now supports pty = TRUE and pty_options to run a process in a pseudo-terminal (PTY) on Unix and Windows (see above). This causes the child to see a real terminal, so programs that disable colour output or interactive behaviour when not attached to a terminal will behave as if they are. stderr is merged into stdout (the result's $stderr is always NULL). A file-based stdin argument is also supported: its contents are fed to the process via the PTY master, followed by an EOF signal (#230).
process$new() now supports ">>" as a prefix for stdout and stderr file paths (e.g. stdout = ">>output.log"), which appends output to the file instead of truncating it. The file is created if it does not exist (#403).
env = "current" now works correctly as a standalone value, inheriting the full environment of the current process (#399).
run() and process$new() now support encoding = "binary" to capture binary output. In this mode run() returns stdout and stderr as raw vectors, and process$read_output() / process$read_error() return raw vectors instead of character strings. All bytes are preserved exactly, including null bytes and non-UTF-8 byte sequences (#406).
New process$read_output_bytes(), process$read_error_bytes() methods and conn_read_bytes() function for reading raw bytes from a processx connection directly (#406).
On Linux, process$get_start_time() now returns the correct wall-clock start time. Previously it was systematically ~0.3–0.5 s too early because the boot time was read from /proc/stat btime, which is truncated to whole seconds. processx now derives the boot time from CLOCK_REALTIME − CLOCK_MONOTONIC, which has nanosecond precision. The ps package is updated in tandem to accept handles created by either the old or the new method, so new ps + old processx continues to work (#394, #402).

From NEWS.md in the release

Install

R (CRAN)pak (dev)Ubuntu (r2u)Fedora (COPR)openSUSE (OBS)

install.packages("processx", repos = "https://cloud.r-project.org/")

Installs the current CRAN release. Prebuilt binaries on Windows and macOS.

if (!requireNamespace("pak", quietly = TRUE))
  install.packages("pak", repos = "https://cloud.r-project.org/")
pak::pak("r-lib/processx")

Development version from r-lib/processx. Installs pak first if it is not already available.

Release

# enable cranapt (r2u) if it is not already set up, then install
grep -rqs r2u.stat.illinois.edu /etc/apt/sources.list /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ \
  || curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/eddelbuettel/r2u/master/inst/scripts/add_cranapt_noble.sh | sudo bash
sudo apt install -y r-cran-processx

Fast Ubuntu binaries via r2u (no compilation). The cranapt setup runs once and is skipped when it is already enabled. We list this channel from recorded r2u download activity rather than from a live index of the repository, so treat it as last known rather than guaranteed.

bspm (used by r2u) also needs make: sudo apt install make

# enable the iucar/cran COPR if it is not already present, then install
ls /etc/yum.repos.d/*iucar*cran*.repo >/dev/null 2>&1 \
  || sudo dnf copr enable -y iucar/cran
sudo dnf install -y R-CRAN-processx

RPMs from the iucar/cran COPR, rebuilt from CRAN.

For install.packages() integration in R, also: sudo dnf install R-CoprManager

# add the autoCRAN OBS repo (Tumbleweed) if it is missing, then install
zypper -q lr | grep -qi autoCRAN \
  || sudo zypper addrepo https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/devel:/languages:/R:/autoCRAN/openSUSE_Tumbleweed/devel:languages:R:autoCRAN.repo
sudo zypper install -y R-processx

RPMs auto-built from CRAN on openSUSE OBS (Tumbleweed). We list this channel from recorded autoCRAN download activity rather than from a live index of the repository, so treat it as last known rather than guaranteed.

Health

CRAN checks

13OK

CRAN check page ↗

Slowest check: 4.0 min · r-devel-windows-x86_64

Status changes

OK13 OK2026-08-05
NOTE12 OK, 1 NOTE2026-08-01
OK13 OK2026-06-09
ERROR12 OK, 1 ERROR2026-06-08
OK12 OK2026-04-25

Show 5 earlier changesHide 5 earlier changes

WARNING13 OK, 1 WARNING2026-04-24
OK14 OK2026-04-09
WARNING9 OK, 4 NOTE, 1 WARNING2026-03-21
NOTE13 OK, 1 NOTE2026-03-17
OK14 OK2026-03-10

Advisories

none known

How this is measured·How advisories are found

Documentation

In release 3.9.0

READMEYes · 2,263 wordsVignettes· In the repository, left out of the releaseNEWSYes · 100% structured · mentions 3.9.0Citation fileNoWebsiteYes · pkgdown

The repository also keeps web-only articles.

Help pages: 13 (3 internal)includes a package overview page
Examples that run: 83%5 run in a plain check (3 of them under a condition) · 1 never run
Exported functions with examples: 55%
Documented parameters: 69%
Return-value docs: 55%
Help pages citing references: 0%

How these are measured

Downloads

15.4M

CRAN downloads in the past year

Rank #39 · ~42.2K/day · ~1.3M/mo

Releases R versions

Daily download trend is not available in this view yet.

1.1M30 days

3.6M90 days

15.4M1 year

Compare downloads with other packages →

Also on213.2K r2u237 autocran1.4M conda_forge22.8K c2d4u

How downloads are counted

Repository

r-lib/processx ↗Organization: r-lib

247Stars

44Forks

0Open issues

1Open PRs

26Releases

1,440Commits

21Commit identities

r

1,440 commits · Last activity 2026-05-17 · 0% stars, 30d · Default branch at 3.9.0.9000, ahead of CRAN 3.9.0 (checked 2026-10-11)

Responsiveness

How these are sampled

PRs merged (all time): 89%
Median days to close, 50 most recently updated closed issues: 41
Median days to close, 50 most recently updated closed PRs: 0

Stars over time

2025-10-10 · 2402026-09-13 · 247

How these are measured

PracticesBeta

13 development-tooling and community-health practices detected across 6 families in the upstream repository

Checks run against github.com/r-lib/processx on 2026-10-11.

Continuous integration (2)

GitHub ActionsR CMD check workflow

The R CMD check workflow runs on Linux, macOS and Windows, and on R-devel

Governance and community (1)

Code of conduct

Docs source (4)

README.Rmdpkgdown

GitHub Pages site last deployed 2026-05-17 · The repository has a site deploy workflow

pkgdown site last built 2026-04-22

Coverage (2)

Coverage reporting (Codecov).covrignore

Show all practicesHide 2 practices

Reproducibility and dev environment (1)

Makefile

Lint, format, editor (3)

AirVS CodeRStudio project

How this is detected·Detection ruleset v3 (2026-09-26)

Dependencies

Declared dependencies

11 external dependencies (excludes base and recommended)

Installing processx adds 2 packages (1 with compiled code, 231 KB of source tarballs). Heaviest: ps 168 KB, R6 63 KB.

Depends (1)

R >= 3.4.0

Imports (3)

ps R6utils

LinkingTo (0)

none

Suggests (11)

callr clicodetoolscovr curl debugmeparallelrlang testthat webfakes withr

Enhances (0)

none

Dependency license breakdown →

Reverse dependencies

86direct

1,065indirect

Imports 86 · LinkingTo 1

Suggested by 49

Show the 48 most downloaded dependentsHide the 48 most downloaded dependents

Depends, Imports or LinkingTo, most downloaded first

and 38 more dependents and 49 packages that suggest it on CRAN ↗

How these are counted

Code & Tests

People & History

People (4)

Gábor Csárdi

Winston Chang

Author · added in 3.0.3

Ascent Digital Services

Copyright holder, Funder · added in 3.8.4

Posit Software, PBC

Copyright holder, Funder · added in 3.8.3

Listed in earlier versions (2)

Mango Solutions

no longer listed · 3.1.0 to 3.8.3

RStudio

no longer listed · 3.1.0 to 3.8.2

Releases (30)

Pick two releases to compare their code metrics.

R
R 4.6.0 released · 2026-04-24
3.9.0Latest
record
2026-04-22 · current release · diff ↗ ·
added 4 exports
conn_create_proc_pipepair, conn_read_bytes, pipeline, processx_conn_read_bytes
3.8.7
record
2026-04-01 · diff ↗
R
R 4.5.0 released · 2025-04-11
3.8.6
record
2025-02-21 · diff ↗
3.8.5
record
2025-01-08 · diff ↗
R
R 4.4.0 released · 2024-04-24
3.8.4
record
2024-03-16 · diff ↗
3.8.3
record
2023-12-10 · diff ↗
3.8.2
record
2023-06-30 · diff ↗
R
R 4.3.0 released · 2023-04-21
3.8.1
record
2023-04-18 · diff ↗
3.8.0
record
2022-10-26 · diff ↗
3.7.0
record
2022-07-07 · diff ↗ ·
added 7 exports
conn_accept_unix_socket, conn_connect_fifo, conn_connect_unix_socket, conn_create_fifo, conn_create_unix_socket, conn_file_name, conn_unix_socket_state
3.6.1
record
2022-06-17 · diff ↗
3.6.0
record
2022-06-10 · diff ↗

Show 24 earlier eventsHide 24 earlier events

R
R 4.2.0 released · 2022-04-22
3.5.3
record
2022-03-25 · diff ↗
R
R 4.1.0 released · 2021-05-18
3.5.2
record
2021-04-30 · diff ↗ ·
added 1 export
supervisor_kill
3.5.1
record
2021-04-04 · diff ↗
3.5.0
record
2021-03-23 · diff ↗ ·
added 1 export
is_valid_fd
3.4.5
record
2020-11-30 · diff ↗
3.4.4
record
2020-09-03 · diff ↗
3.4.3
record
2020-07-05 · diff ↗
R
R 4.0.0 released · 2020-04-24
3.4.2
record
2020-02-09 · diff ↗
3.4.1
record
2019-07-18 · diff ↗
3.4.0
record
2019-07-03 · diff ↗ ·
added 1 export
default_pty_options
3.3.1
record
2019-05-08 · diff ↗ ·
added 1 export
curl_fds
R
R 3.6.0 released · 2019-04-26
3.3.0
record
2019-03-10 · diff ↗
3.2.1
record
2018-12-05 · diff ↗ ·
added 7 exports
base64_decode, base64_encode, processx_conn_close, processx_conn_is_incomplete, processx_conn_read_chars, processx_conn_read_lines, processx_conn_write
3.2.0
record
2018-08-16 · diff ↗ ·
added 11 exports
conn_create_fd, conn_create_file, conn_create_pipepair, conn_disable_inheritance, conn_get_fileno, conn_is_incomplete, conn_read_chars, conn_read_lines, conn_set_stderr, conn_set_stdout, conn_write
3.1.0
record
2018-05-15 · diff ↗
3.0.3
record
2018-05-07 · diff ↗
R
R 3.5.0 released · 2018-04-23
2.0.0.1
record
2017-07-30 · diff ↗
2.0.0
record
2017-05-30
R
R 3.4.0 released · 2017-04-21

Package metadata

First published: 2017-05-30
Total releases: 30 / 9 yrs
License: MIT + file LICENSE OSI
Minimum R: ≥ 3.4.0
Download size: 191 KB

Cite

Cite this package

Run in R for the authors' preferred citation:

citation("processx")

Format

Csárdi, G., Ascent Digital Services, Posit Software, PBC, & Chang, W. (2026). processx: Execute and Control System Processes (Version 3.9.0) [Computer software]. https://doi.org/10.32614/CRAN.package.processx

This package has no citation file, so citation() returns this entry built from DESCRIPTION.

Cite the R Observatory

For a number measured here: a download total, a coverage figure, an archival date.

Format

APA

Balamuta, J. J. (2026). R Observatory: Metrics for processx version 3.9.0 [Data set]. HJJB, LLC. Data release v2026-10-18. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21843040

From data release v2026-10-18, which the citation names so these numbers can be found later. More on citing and the projects behind them.

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