Why do I have to install RMarkdown to knit?

[EconomiCurtis]

@smacsween

there is no package called 'rmarkdown'

There's a marked solution for this issue here:

RStudio doesn't find rmarkdown package when knitting

@Rricarda How are you trying to knit the file? Are you clicking on the RStudio Knit button? What happens if you try running the command directly in the R console where you were running installed.packages(), e.g. library(rmarkdown) render("path/to/file.Rmd")

Try running

library(rmarkdown)
render("path/to/file.Rmd")

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For the source of the issue with the knit button, this is a little confusing to me. The only difference between rmarkdown::render() in your console and clicking the knit button is that the button runs render in a new session.

Yihui has some discussion of what's going on with here

17.5 Customize the Knit button (*) | R Markdown Cookbook