R Observatory: Metrics for callr version 3.8.0

Balamuta, James Joseph

doi:10.5281/zenodo.21843040

callr

3.8.0

Call R from R

85packages dependsuggested by 147

15.1Mdownloads / year

70.2%test coverage

13/13flavors OK

Overview

About

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

It is sometimes useful to perform a computation in a separate R process, without affecting the current R process at all. This packages does exactly that.

Changes in 3.8.0

r(), rcmd(), rscript() and rscript_process now accept pty = TRUE to run the child R process in a pseudo-terminal.
callr now supports carrier::crate(). package = NULL, the new default, handles functions created with carrier::crate() automatically (#249).
The CALLR_TMPDIR environment variable can now be set to override the directory callr uses for its auxiliary temporary files. When unset, callr keeps using tempdir() (#172).
r_bg() (and r()) subprocesses now exit with a non-zero status when the evaluated expression throws an error or is interrupted, instead of always exiting with status 0 (#291).
r(), r_bg(), r_session$new() and friends now accept libpath = NULL, which leaves the subprocess library path alone, so the subprocess uses the .libPaths() of a fresh R session (e.g. as set up by a project .Rprofile) instead of inheriting the parent's library path (#255).

Show all changes in 3.8.0Hide the rest of the changes in 3.8.0

callr is now instrumented with OpenTelemetry. When an OpenTelemetry SDK (such as otelsdk) is loaded and configured, callr emits spans for r(), rcmd(), rscript(), r_process and r_session (including per-call $call, $read and $close spans), and propagates the W3C traceparent header into the subprocess so spans created inside the child are parented to the parent's span. See the 'OpenTelemetry' article for details (#302).
r(), rcmd(), rscript() and friends no longer hang on Windows when called with stdout = "|" (or any value of stdout/stderr other than a file path or NULL) (#313).

From NEWS.md in the release

Install

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

install.packages("callr", 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/callr")

Development version from r-lib/callr. 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-callr

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-callr

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-callr

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: 1.2 min · r-oldrel-windows-x86_64

Status changes

OK13 OK2026-08-05
NOTE12 OK, 1 NOTE2026-08-01
OK13 OK2026-06-09
NOTE12 OK, 1 NOTE2026-06-08
OK14 OK2026-03-10

Advisories

none known

How this is measured·How advisories are found

Documentation

In release 3.8.0

READMEYes · 1,356 wordsVignettes· In the repository, left out of the releaseNEWSYes · 100% structured · mentions 3.8.0Citation fileNoWebsiteYes · pkgdown

Help pages: 26 (5 internal)includes a package overview page
Examples that run: 100%14 run in a plain check (8 of them under a condition)
Exported functions with examples: 67%
Documented parameters: 99%
Return-value docs: 57%
Help pages citing references: 0%

How these are measured

Downloads

15.1M

CRAN downloads in the past year

Rank #38 · ~41.3K/day · ~1.3M/mo

Releases R versions

Daily download trend is not available in this view yet.

1.1M30 days

3.6M90 days

15.1M1 year

Compare downloads with other packages →

Also on200.7K r2u173 autocran1.4M conda_forge22.5K c2d4u

How downloads are counted

Repository

r-lib/callr ↗Organization: r-lib

304Stars

41Forks

3Open issues

0Open PRs

23Releases

748Commits

22Commit identities

r

748 commits · Last activity 2026-06-08 · 0% stars, 30d · Default branch at 3.8.0.9000, ahead of CRAN 3.8.0 (checked 2026-10-11)

Responsiveness

How these are sampled

PRs merged (all time): 93%
Median days to close, 50 most recently updated closed issues: 52
Median days to close, 50 most recently updated closed PRs: 0

Stars over time

2025-08-04 · 3002026-08-26 · 304

How these are measured

PracticesBeta

13 development-tooling and community-health practices detected across 5 families in the upstream repository

Checks run against github.com/r-lib/callr 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 2026-06-08 · The repository has a site deploy workflow

pkgdown site last built 2026-06-08

Coverage (2)

Coverage reporting (Codecov).covrignore

Show all practicesHide 1 practice

Lint, format, editor (4)

Lint workflowAirVS CodeRStudio project

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

AI coding toolsBeta

This repository shows signs of AI coding tools.

Claude Codefirst seen 2026-06-05
Seen in the repository: CLAUDE.md
Named in .Rbuildignore: CLAUDE.md

How this is detected·Detection ruleset v4 (updated 2026-09-27)

Dependencies

Declared dependencies

12 external dependencies (excludes base and recommended)

Installing callr adds 4 packages (2 with compiled code, 493 KB of source tarballs). Heaviest: processx 191 KB, ps 168 KB, otel 71 KB.

Depends (1)

R >= 3.4

Imports (4)

otel processx R6utils

LinkingTo (0)

none

Suggests (9)

asciicast carrier cli otelsdk (>= 0.2.0)ps rprojroot spelling testthat withr (>= 2.3.0)

Enhances (0)

none

Dependency license breakdown →

Reverse dependencies

85direct

879indirect

Depends 1 · Imports 84

Suggested by 147

Show the 48 most downloaded dependentsHide the 48 most downloaded dependents

Depends, Imports or LinkingTo, most downloaded first

and 37 more dependents and 147 packages that suggest it on CRAN ↗

How these are counted

Code & Tests

People & History

People (4)

Gábor Csárdi

Winston Chang

Author · added in 2.0.0

Ascent Digital Services

Copyright holder, Funder · added in 3.7.5

Posit Software, PBC

Copyright holder, Funder · added in 3.7.4

Listed in earlier versions (2)

Mango Solutions

no longer listed · 2.0.4 to 3.7.4

RStudio

no longer listed · 2.0.4 to 3.7.3

Releases (29)

Pick two releases to compare their code metrics.

3.8.0Latest
record
2026-06-05 · current release · diff ↗
R
R 4.6.0 released · 2026-04-24
R
R 4.5.0 released · 2025-04-11
R
R 4.4.0 released · 2024-04-24
3.7.6
record
2024-03-25 · diff ↗
3.7.5
record
2024-02-19 · diff ↗
3.7.4
record
2024-02-19 · diff ↗
R
R 4.3.0 released · 2023-04-21
3.7.3
record
2022-11-02 · diff ↗
3.7.2
record
2022-08-22 · diff ↗ ·
added 1 export
add_hook
3.7.1
record
2022-07-13 · diff ↗
R
R 4.2.0 released · 2022-04-22
R
R 4.1.0 released · 2021-05-18
3.7.0
record
2021-04-20 · diff ↗
3.6.0
record
2021-03-28 · diff ↗ ·
added 1 export
supported_archs
3.5.1
record
2020-10-13 · diff ↗

Show 24 earlier eventsHide 24 earlier events

3.5.0
record
2020-10-08 · diff ↗
3.4.4
record
2020-09-07 · diff ↗
R
R 4.0.0 released · 2020-04-24
3.4.3
record
2020-03-28 · diff ↗
3.4.2
record
2020-02-12 · diff ↗
3.4.1
record
2020-01-24 · diff ↗
3.4.0
record
2019-12-09 · diff ↗
3.3.2
record
2019-09-22 · diff ↗
3.3.1
record
2019-07-18 · diff ↗
3.3.0
record
2019-07-04 · diff ↗
R
R 3.6.0 released · 2019-04-26
3.2.0
record
2019-03-15 · diff ↗
3.1.1
record
2018-12-21 · diff ↗ ·
added 1 export
default_repos
3.1.0
record
2018-12-10 · diff ↗ ·
added 3 exports
rscript, rscript_process, rscript_process_options
3.0.0
record
2018-08-24 · diff ↗ ·
added 2 exports
r_session, r_session_options
2.0.4
record
2018-05-15 · diff ↗
R
R 3.5.0 released · 2018-04-23
2.0.3
record
2018-04-11 · diff ↗
2.0.2
record
2018-02-11 · diff ↗
2.0.1
record
2018-01-30 · diff ↗
2.0.0
record
2018-01-28 · diff ↗ ·
added 12 exports
poll, process, r_bg, r_copycat, r_process, r_process_options, rcmd_bg, rcmd_copycat, rcmd_process, rcmd_process_options, rcmd_safe_env, run
R
R 3.4.0 released · 2017-04-21
1.0.0
record
2016-06-18
R
R 3.3.0 released · 2016-05-03

Package metadata

First published: 2016-06-18
Total releases: 29 / 10 yrs
License: MIT + file LICENSE OSI
Minimum R: ≥ 3.4
Download size: 111 KB

Appears in task views

High-Performance and Parallel Computing with R

Cite

Cite this package

Run in R for the authors' preferred citation:

citation("callr")

Format

Csárdi, G., Ascent Digital Services, Posit Software, PBC, & Chang, W. (2026). callr: Call R from R (Version 3.8.0) [Computer software]. https://doi.org/10.32614/CRAN.package.callr

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 callr version 3.8.0 [Data set]. HJJB, LLC. Data release v2026-10-17. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21843040

From data release v2026-10-17, which the citation names so these numbers can be found later. More on citing and the projects behind them.

Report a problem with this page →