Automating Rscripts using Task Scheduler; R script not running

Question

I have looked through all solutions for Automating Rscripts and I am able to work few things but my task opens Rstudio but never runs the script.

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Please let me know if any more details are required.

You should use Rscript.exe and put it in a barch file. See this for example. — agstudy
– agstudy, Commented Jul 12, 2015 at 19:41
you need to run the command line version - you are just opening the file. Depending on your setup try Rscript c:/users/dropbox/Rscripts/CRScore.R — jeremycg
– jeremycg, Commented Jul 12, 2015 at 19:43
Or you can try create CRScore.Rexec and choose Rscript as dafault for Rexec files. — Batanichek
– Batanichek, Commented Jul 13, 2015 at 8:09

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 11:43:53Z

I was having many issues in getting my R script to run. Gathering from various sources this is what ultimately worked:

Make sure R is installed in a path without spaces in it. My original installation used C:\Program Files\R\R-3.2.0\bin\ to get to Rscript. But this resulted in the error noted here. Installing the latest version of R to C:\R-3.2.1\bin resolved this error.
Make sure any packages you need for the R script file are copied into the new installation's library (e.g., C:\R-3.2.1\library). Mine were in C:\Users\user\Documents\R\win-library\3.2 and my R script couldn't find them when running from the command line.
Create a batch file (.bat). You can use the following code:
```
C:\R-3.2.1\bin\Rscript file.R
exit
```
Save this file in the same location as your file.R
Run this .bat file in Task Scheduler as an Action by specifying the path to the .bat file in the "Program/script" field (as you have above). Make sure to also specify the location of your file.R in the "Start in (optional)" text field.

Your R script should now be able to run through Task Scheduler.

Charlotte C · Accepted Answer · 2019-12-06 16:29:42Z

1

You need to tell scheduler how to access R and then tell it what to execute.

In the window you show above (New Action), this is an example of how it should be set-up:

Program/Script: "C:\Program Files\R\R-3.6.0\bin\Rscript"

Add arguments (optional): -e "source('C:\FileName.R')"

As a side note, if you want to run an rmarkdown file, you need to instead use this syntax:

-e "library(rmarkdown);Sys.setenv(RSTUDIO_PANDOC='C:/Program Files/RStudio/bin/pandoc'); render('C:/FileName.Rmd')"

answered Dec 6, 2019 at 16:29

Charlotte C

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2 Answers 2