R: Is R Running Interactively?

interactive {base} | R Documentation

## Is R Running Interactively?

### Description

Return `TRUE` when R is being used interactively and `FALSE` otherwise.

### Usage

    interactive()

### Details

An interactive R session is one in which it is assumed that there is a human operator to interact with, so for example R can prompt for corrections to incorrect input or ask what to do next or if it is OK to move to the next plot.

GUI consoles will arrange to start R in an interactive session. When R is run in a terminal (via `Rterm.exe` on Windows), it assumes that it is interactive if ‘stdin’ is connected to a (pseudo-)terminal and not if ‘stdin’ is redirected to a file or pipe. Command-line options --interactive (Unix) and --ess (Windows, `Rterm.exe`) override the default assumption. (On a Unix-alike, whether the `readline` command-line editor is used is not overridden by --interactive.)

Embedded uses of R can set a session to be interactive or not.

Internally, whether a session is interactive determines

- how some errors are handled and reported, e.g. see `stop` and `options("showWarnCalls")`.

- whether one of --save, --no-save or --vanilla is required, and if R ever asks whether to save the workspace.

- the choice of default graphics device launched when needed and by `dev.new`: see `options("device")`

- whether graphics devices ever ask for confirmation of a new page.

In addition, R's own R code makes use of `interactive()`: for example `help`, `debugger` and `install.packages` do.

### Note

This is a primitive function.

### See Also

`source`, `.First`

### Examples

     .First <- function() if(interactive()) x11()

[Package base version 3.1.2 Index]