How To: Verify Rstudio is Using User Installed Rtools

Summary

Verify Rstudio is using Rtools that was installed in user profile.

Body

Question

How do I verify that Rstudio is using Rtools installed in my user profile?

Answer

1. Using RStudio > Console pane, enter 'Sys.which("make.exe") ' at the prompt.

The resulting path string shows the location of your Rtools installation. Confirm it resides in your user profile and is writable so it can be used without administrative privileges.

Example for Rtools 4.5 under user TrumanT: "C:\\Users\\trumant\\rtools45\\usr\\bin\\make.exe"

Rstudio console displaying make.exe location in user profile

2. With the devtools package installed, at the RStudio > Console prompt enter 'devtools::find_rtools()'. This should return TRUE as shown below, verifying Rstudio is using your Rtools installation.

Rstudio console with devtools::find_rtools() result equal TRUE

Note: If the devtools package is not installed, please refer to How-To: RStudio: Installing Packages for installing the package.

Details

Article ID: 2153

Created

Mon 3/2/26 8:36 AM

Modified

Mon 3/16/26 9:48 AM