How to convert R Markdown to PDF?

Question

I\'ve previously asked about the commands for converting R Markdown to HTML.

What is a good way to convert R Markdown files to PDF documents?

Answer 1

I found using R studio the easiest way, but if wanting to control from the command line, then a simple R script can do the trick using rmarkdown render command (as mentioned above). Full script details here

#!/usr/bin/env R

# Render R markdown to PDF.
# Invoke with:
# > R -q -f make.R --args my_report.Rmd

# load packages
require(rmarkdown)

# require a parameter naming file to render
if (length(args) == 0) {
    stop("Error: missing file operand", call. = TRUE)
} else {
    # read report to render from command line
    for (rmd in commandArgs(trailingOnly = TRUE)) {
        # render Rmd to PDF
        if ( grepl("\\.Rmd$", rmd) && file.exists(rmd)) {
            render(rmd, pdf_document())
        } else {
            print(paste("Ignoring: ", rmd))
        }
    }
}