Unload a package without restarting R

Question

I want to unload a package without restarting R

I tried using ?library, but it does not show options that would unload a package.

Then, I tried using detach that can unload a package.
But it failed and shows an error:

detach(vegan)
Error in detach(vegan) : invalid name argument

detach("vegan")
Error in detach("vegan") :invalid name argument

Any suggestions to unload the package?

Answer 1

Try the below option:

detach("package:vegan", unload=TRUE)

NOTE: You can try ?detach for details on detach

Multiple versions of a package can be loaded once.

To guarantee that all copies are detached, use the below function:

detach_package <- function(abcpkg, character.only = FALSE)
{
  if(!character.only)
  {
    abcpkg <- deparse(substitute(abcpkg))
  }
  search_item <- paste("package", abcpkg, sep = ":")
  while(search_item %in% search())
  {
    detach(search_item, unload = TRUE, character.only = TRUE)
  }
}

If you want to use detach for a single package, then, use the below options:

detach_package(vegan)

OR

detach_package("vegan", TRUE)