{
  "$type": "site.standard.document",
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  "path": "/blog/2026/04/12#littler_0.3.23",
  "publishedAt": "2026-04-12T16:50:55.414Z",
  "site": "http://dirk.eddelbuettel.com",
  "tags": [
    "littler",
    "CRAN package",
    "Jeff",
    "starts\nfaster",
    "RInside",
    "FAQ\nvignette",
    "Github repo",
    "examples\nvignette",
    "0.3.22\nrelease",
    "131",
    "132",
    "CRANberries",
    "the\nprevious release",
    "ChangeLog",
    "package docs website",
    "GitHub",
    "its CRAN page",
    "Debian",
    "Ubuntu binaries at\nCRAN",
    "Dirk\nEddelbuettel",
    "Thinking inside the box",
    "sponsor me at\nGitHub",
    "Tour\nde Shore 2026 ride in support of the Maywood Fine Arts Center"
  ],
  "textContent": "The twentyfourth release of littler as a CRAN package landed on CRAN just now, following in the now twenty-one year history (!!) as a (initially non-CRAN) package started by Jeff in 2006, and joined by me a few weeks later.\n\nlittler is the first command-line interface for R as it predates `Rscript`. It allows for piping as well for _shebang_ scripting via `#!`, uses command-line arguments more consistently and still starts\nfaster. It also always loaded the `methods` package which `Rscript` only began to do in later years.\n\nlittler lives on Linux and Unix, has its difficulties on macOS due to some-braindeadedness there (who ever thought case-insensitive filesystems as a default were a good idea?) and simply does not exist on Windows (yet – the build system could be extended – see RInside for an existence proof, and volunteers are welcome!). See the FAQ\nvignette on how to add it to your `PATH`. A few examples are highlighted at the Github repo:, as well as in the examples\nvignette.\n\nThis release, which comes just two months after the previous 0.3.22\nrelease that brought a few new features, is mostly internal. (The previous release erroneously had 0.3.23 in its blog and social media posts, it really was 0.3.22 and this one now is is 0.3.23.) Mattias Ellert address a nag (when building for a distribution) about one example file with a shebang not have excutable modes. I accommodated the ever-changing interface the C API of R (within about twelve hours of being notified). A few other smaller changes were made as well polishing a script or two or usual, see below for more.\n\nThe full change description follows.\n\n> #### Changes in littler version 0.3.23 (2026-04-12)\n>\n>   * Changes in examples scripts\n>\n>     * Correct spelling in `installGithub.r` to lower-case h\n>\n>     * The `r2u.r` now recognises ‘resolute’ aka 26.06\n>\n>     * `installRub.r` can install (more easily) from r-multiverse\n>\n>     * A file permission was corrected (Mattias Ellert in #131)\n>\n>   * Changes in package\n>\n>     * Update script count and examples in README.md\n>\n>     * Continuous intgegration scripts received minor updates\n>\n>     * The C level access to the R API was updated to reflect most recent standards (Dirk in #132)\n>\n>\n\n\nMy CRANberries service provides a comparison to the\nprevious release. Full details for the littler release are provided as usual at the ChangeLog page, and also on the package docs website. The code is available via the GitHub repo, from tarballs and now of course also from its CRAN page and via `install.packages(\"littler\")`. Binary packages are available directly in Debian as well as (in a day or two) Ubuntu binaries at\nCRAN thanks to the tireless Michael Rutter. Comments and suggestions are welcome at the GitHub repo.\n\nThis post by Dirk\nEddelbuettel originated on his Thinking inside the box blog. If you like this or other open-source work I do, you can sponsor me at\nGitHub. You can also sponsor my Tour\nde Shore 2026 ride in support of the Maywood Fine Arts Center.",
  "title": "Dirk Eddelbuettel: littler 0.3.23 on CRAN: Mostly Internal Fixes",
  "updatedAt": "2026-04-12T14:47:00.000Z"
}