diff --git a/appveyor.yml b/appveyor.yml
index f4d13b8515cd0..49e09eadee5da 100644
--- a/appveyor.yml
+++ b/appveyor.yml
@@ -26,6 +26,8 @@ branches:
 
 only_commits:
   files:
+    - appveyor.yml
+    - dev/appveyor-install-dependencies.ps1
     - R/
     - sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/api/r/
     - core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/api/r/
@@ -38,12 +40,8 @@ install:
   # Install maven and dependencies
   - ps: .\dev\appveyor-install-dependencies.ps1
   # Required package for R unit tests
-  - cmd: R -e "install.packages('testthat', repos='http://cran.us.r-project.org')"
-  - cmd: R -e "packageVersion('testthat')"
-  - cmd: R -e "install.packages('e1071', repos='http://cran.us.r-project.org')"
-  - cmd: R -e "packageVersion('e1071')"
-  - cmd: R -e "install.packages('survival', repos='http://cran.us.r-project.org')"
-  - cmd: R -e "packageVersion('survival')"
+  - cmd: R -e "install.packages(c('knitr', 'rmarkdown', 'testthat', 'e1071', 'survival'), repos='http://cran.us.r-project.org')"
+  - cmd: R -e "packageVersion('knitr'); packageVersion('rmarkdown'); packageVersion('testthat'); packageVersion('e1071'); packageVersion('survival')"
 
 build_script:
   - cmd: mvn -DskipTests -Psparkr -Phive -Phive-thriftserver package