Many thanks to Berwin, Eric, Robert, and Jan for their input.
I had hoped it was as simple as because I typed saveRDS("rawData", file = "rawData.rds") on the Windows side. but that wasn't the case. Robert Burbridge suggested: windows (not run) f <- file("rawData.rds", open="w") serialize(rawData, f, xdr = FALSE) close(f) # linux rawData <- unserialize(file = "rawData.rds") That didn't work: Error in unserialize(file = "rawData.rds") : unused argument (file = "rawData.rds") (the argument isn't 'file') Nor did > rawData <- unserialize("rawData.rds") Error in unserialize("rawData.rds") : character vectors are no longer accepted by unserialize() However readRDS(file = "rawData.rds") did! So what I needed was serialize but not unserialize. I still don't know Why, but I know How. -- ~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~. ___ Patrick Connolly {~._.~} Great minds discuss ideas _( Y )_ Average minds discuss events (:_~*~_:) Small minds discuss people (_)-(_) ..... Eleanor Roosevelt ~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~. ______________________________________________ R-help@r-project.org mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.