How can I know if R is running on 64 bits versus 32?

Question

My version output is:

> version
               _                            
platform       x86_64-w64-mingw32           
arch           x86_64                       
os             mingw32                      
system         x86_64, mingw32              
status                                      
major          2                            
minor          15.2                         
year           2012                         
month          10                           
day            26                           
svn rev        61015                        
language       R                            
version.string R version 2.15.2 (2012-10-26)
nickname       Trick or Treat

where os is mingw32. Does that mean I'm using only 32 bits? How can I change that?

Did you get the answer for this?I'm facing the same issue and I don't know how to proceed, Should the command Sys.getenv("R_ARCH") or Sys.info()[["machine"]] to be typed in R query window or on command prompt? — Durgaprasad, Feb 11 '20 at 06:36

G. Grothendieck · Accepted Answer · 2018-07-07T00:28:22.423

62

Here are a few ways:

Sys.getenv("R_ARCH") returns either "/i386" or "/x64" at least on my Windows system (but not on my Ubuntu system where it returns an empty string)
Sys.info()[["machine"]] returns "x86_32" or "x86_64" on my Windows and Ubuntu systems.

Updated: With additional method.

edited Jul 07 '18 at 00:28

answered Aug 07 '13 at 03:03

G. Grothendieck

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Mine returned `""`. :-/ – Waldir Leoncio Oct 29 '14 at 09:38
3

Just type R in terminal and have a look at the top of the text. Mine says: x86_64-pc-linux-gnu (64-bit). The accepted answer does not work for me. – Christopher John Jun 09 '17 at 08:02
On R version 3.3.3, Sys.info()$machine return an error: "$ operator is invalid for atomic vectors". This alternative works: Sys.info()["machine"]. – Stanwood Jul 06 '18 at 17:46

IRTFM · Answer 2 · 2016-03-28T16:05:46.897

51

Rather than needing to remember the designations of various OS's, the canonical cross-platform method is to look at:

> .Machine$sizeof.pointer
[1] 8   # 8 bytes for address is 64 bits.

This is the address space for R objects. (It's not the address space for the OS.)

edited Mar 28 '16 at 16:05

answered Aug 06 '13 at 22:41

IRTFM

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score 6 · Answer 3 · answered Sep 07 '14 at 10:02

6

You may have multiple versions of R installed. To change versions in RStudio: Tools -> Global Options -> R Version...Change...

I choose "Use the machine's default version of R64 (64-bit)," since my OS is Windows 8 x64.

answered Sep 07 '14 at 10:02

datalifenyc

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score 5 · Answer 4 · answered Aug 06 '13 at 22:32

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Your platform says x86_64-w64 in front of the mingw32. Your arch is similarly x86_64. That means you're running 64-bit, on 64-bit Windows.

For reference, the corresponding arch for 32-bit R would be i386.

answered Aug 06 '13 at 22:32

Hong Ooi

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Also, if you're using the GUI version of R, the title bar will give the architecture: `(32-bit)` or `(64-bit)`. – Hong Ooi Aug 06 '13 at 22:37
That's probably a Windows only answer. Certainly not true of the Mac GUI. – IRTFM Oct 29 '14 at 16:11

How can I know if R is running on 64 bits versus 32?

4 Answers4

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