osrm_install: Install OSRM Backend Binaries

In osrm.backend: Bindings for 'Open Source Routing Machine'

Install OSRM Backend Binaries

Description

Downloads and installs pre-compiled binaries for the OSRM backend. By default, osrm_install() uses the e-kotov/osrm-binaries release repository, which publishes immutable backend command-line archives primarily for this R package. The upstream Project-OSRM/osrm-backend release repository can still be used with osrm_binaries_provider = "official".

The function automatically detects the user's operating system and architecture to download the appropriate files. Validated versions are maintained by the package's live integration tests; see the OSRM live tests workflow and per-OS badges on GitHub Actions for the current validated versions. Other releases available on GitHub can be installed but are not guaranteed to function correctly.

Usage

osrm_install(
  version = "latest",
  osrm_binaries_provider = c("default", "official"),
  dest_dir = NULL,
  force = FALSE,
  path_action = c("session", "project", "none"),
  quiet = FALSE,
  check_tested = TRUE,
  download_url = NULL,
  file_path = NULL
)

Arguments

version	A string specifying the OSRM version tag to install. Defaults to "latest". Use "latest" to automatically find the most recent stable version (internally calls osrm_check_latest_version()). Versions published in e-kotov/osrm-binaries and validated by this package are installed without warnings; other available versions are still attempted with a warning.
osrm_binaries_provider	A string specifying the provider to download binaries from. Defaults to "default", which pulls from "e-kotov/osrm-binaries" and is the primary supported provider for this package. Set to "official" to download upstream binaries from "Project-OSRM/osrm-backend" where available. Advanced users can override the provider completely by setting the R option osrm.backend.custom_repository to a custom GitHub repository (e.g. "my-user/my-repo").
dest_dir	A string specifying the directory where OSRM binaries should be installed. If NULL (the default), a user-friendly, persistent location is chosen via tools::R_user_dir("osrm.backend", which = "cache"), and the binaries are installed into a subdirectory named after the OSRM version (e.g. .../cache/v26.4.1).
force	A logical value. If TRUE, reinstall OSRM even if it's already found in dest_dir. If FALSE (default), the function will stop if an existing installation is detected.
path_action	A string specifying how to handle the system PATH. One of: "session" (default): Adds the OSRM bin directory to the PATH for the rest of the current R session. This intentionally changes the session environment and is not reset automatically. "project": Modifies the .Rprofile in the current project to set the PATH for future sessions in that project. Use osrm_clear_path() to remove lines added by osrm.backend. "none": Does not modify the PATH.
quiet	A logical value. If TRUE, suppresses installer messages and warnings. Defaults to FALSE.
check_tested	A logical value. If TRUE (default), the function emits a status message pointing to the live integration-test badges that report currently validated OSRM versions. If FALSE, this status message is suppressed.
download_url	Advanced usage only. A direct URL to a .tar.gz archive containing OSRM binaries. If provided, no GitHub release lookup is performed: the archive is fetched as given, version is not resolved online, and the macOS compatibility gate is not applied. The archive must be structured similarly to the default releases, containing the required OSRM executables (at least osrm-routed or osrm-routed.exe) either directly at the root of the archive or nested under a single directory level. Supporting libraries and Lua profiles placed in the same folder will be installed alongside. Cannot be combined with file_path. Because the archive is not resolved against a release, its OSRM version is unknown: when dest_dir is NULL the binaries are installed into a subdirectory named manual, and supplementary v6 runtime libraries are not installed automatically. Passing an explicit version tag alongside the archive is still allowed and is used only to name that subdirectory and to decide whether those runtime libraries are needed; it never triggers a network lookup.
file_path	Advanced usage only. A local file path to a .tar.gz archive containing OSRM binaries. If provided, skips downloading entirely. The path is validated before any directory is created or any network request is made. The archive structure expectations and the version handling are identical to those of download_url. Cannot be combined with download_url.

Details

The function performs the following steps:

1. Queries the GitHub API to find the specified release of e-kotov/osrm-binaries.

2. Identifies the correct binary (.tar.gz archive) for the user's OS (Linux, macOS, or Windows) and architecture (x64, arm64).

3. Downloads the archive to a temporary location.

4. Extracts the archive and locates the OSRM executables (e.g., osrm-routed, osrm-extract).

5. Copies these executables to a local directory (defaults to ⁠file.path(tools::R_user_dir("osrm.backend", which = "cache"), <version>)⁠).

6. Downloads the matching Lua profiles from the release tarball and installs them alongside the binaries.

7. Optionally modifies the PATH environment variable for the current session or project.

Binary Providers

The osrm_binaries_provider argument allows choosing between two release sources:

• "default" (e-kotov/osrm-binaries): This provider is highly recommended and is the primary supported path for this R package. It offers standalone, immutable OSRM backend archives with predictable asset names, bundled runtime libraries where practical, SHA-256 verification, and no Node.js wrapper artifacts. It also provides native linux-arm64 and darwin-arm64 archives.

• "official" (Project-OSRM/osrm-backend): The upstream releases provided by the core OSRM team. These releases are intended primarily for upstream OSRM's Node.js distribution and are packaged as node_osrm archives. Their platform coverage and bundled runtime libraries may differ across OSRM versions, and recent upstream binaries may depend on runtime libraries from newer build environments. osrm_install() keeps compatibility code for this provider, but it is a secondary path rather than the package's main installation source.

Power users (including package authors running cross-platform tests) can override the auto-detected platform by setting the R options osrm.backend.override_os and osrm.backend.override_arch (e.g., options(osrm.backend.override_os = "linux", osrm.backend.override_arch = "arm64")) before calling osrm_install(). Overrides allow requesting binaries for any OS and CPU combination that exists on the GitHub releases.

Value

The path to the installation directory.

Examples

if (identical(Sys.getenv("OSRM_EXAMPLES"), "true")) {
  old <- setwd(tempdir())
  on.exit(setwd(old), add = TRUE)

  # Install the default stable version and set PATH for this session
  install_dir <- osrm_install(path_action = "session", quiet = TRUE)

  # Install for a project non-interactively (e.g., in a script)
  osrm_install(path_action = "project", quiet = TRUE, force = TRUE)

  # Clean up the project's .Rprofile and uninstall binaries
  osrm_clear_path(quiet = TRUE)
  osrm_uninstall(
    dest_dir = install_dir,
    clear_path = TRUE,
    force = TRUE,
    quiet = TRUE
  )
}

osrm.backend documentation built on Sept. 5, 2026, 5:08 p.m.