r-builds
This repository orchestrates tools to produce R binaries. The binaries are available as a community resource, they are not professionally supported by RStudio. The R language is open source, please see the official documentation at https://www.r-project.org/.
These binaries are not a replacement to existing binary distributions for R. The binaries were built with the following considerations:
- They use a minimal set of build and runtime dependencies.
- They are designed to be used side-by-side, e.g., on RStudio Server Pro.
- They give users a consistent option for accessing R across different Linux distributions.
These binaries have been extensively tested, and are used in production everyday on RStudio Cloud and shinyapps.io. Please open an issue to report a specific bug, or ask questions on RStudio Community.
Supported Platforms
R binaries are built for the following Linux operating systems:
- Ubuntu 16.04, 18.04, 20.04
- Debian 9, 10
- CentOS / Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7, 8
- openSUSE 42.3, 15
- SUSE Linux Enterprise 12, 15
Quick Installation
To use our quick install script to install R, simply run the following
command. To use the quick installer, you must have root or sudo privileges,
and curl
must be installed.
bash -c "$(curl -L https://rstd.io/r-install)"
Manual Installation
Specify R version
Define the version of R that you want to install. Available versions of R can be found here: https://cdn.rstudio.com/r/versions.json
R_VERSION=3.5.3
Download and install R
Ubuntu/Debian Linux
Download the deb package:
# Ubuntu 16.04
wget https://cdn.rstudio.com/r/ubuntu-1604/pkgs/r-${R_VERSION}_1_amd64.deb
# Ubuntu 18.04
wget https://cdn.rstudio.com/r/ubuntu-1804/pkgs/r-${R_VERSION}_1_amd64.deb
# Ubuntu 20.04
wget https://cdn.rstudio.com/r/ubuntu-2004/pkgs/r-${R_VERSION}_1_amd64.deb
# Debian 9
wget https://cdn.rstudio.com/r/debian-9/pkgs/r-${R_VERSION}_1_amd64.deb
# Debian 10
wget https://cdn.rstudio.com/r/debian-10/pkgs/r-${R_VERSION}_1_amd64.deb
Then install the package:
sudo apt-get install gdebi-core
sudo gdebi r-${R_VERSION}_1_amd64.deb
RHEL/CentOS Linux
Enable the Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux repository (RHEL/CentOS 7 only):
# CentOS / RHEL 7
sudo yum install https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-7.noarch.rpm
Note that on RHEL 7, you may also need to enable the Optional repository:
# For RHEL 7 users with certificate subscriptions: sudo subscription-manager repos --enable "rhel-*-optional-rpms" # Or alternatively, using yum: sudo yum install yum-utils sudo yum-config-manager --enable "rhel-*-optional-rpms"
Download the rpm package:
# CentOS / RHEL 7
wget https://cdn.rstudio.com/r/centos-7/pkgs/R-${R_VERSION}-1-1.x86_64.rpm
# CentOS / RHEL 8
wget https://cdn.rstudio.com/r/centos-8/pkgs/R-${R_VERSION}-1-1.x86_64.rpm
Then install the package:
sudo yum install R-${R_VERSION}-1-1.x86_64.rpm
SUSE Linux
Enable the Python backports repository (SLES 12 only):
# SLES 12
VERSION="SLE_$(grep "^VERSION=" /etc/os-release | sed -e 's/VERSION=//' -e 's/"//g' -e 's/-/_/')"
sudo zypper --gpg-auto-import-keys addrepo https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/devel:/languages:/python:/backports/$VERSION/devel:languages:python:backports.repo
Download the rpm package:
# openSUSE 42.3 / SLES 12
wget https://cdn.rstudio.com/r/opensuse-42/pkgs/R-${R_VERSION}-1-1.x86_64.rpm
# openSUSE 15.1 / SLES 15 SP1
wget https://cdn.rstudio.com/r/opensuse-15/pkgs/R-${R_VERSION}-1-1.x86_64.rpm
# openSUSE 15.2 / SLES 15 SP2
wget https://cdn.rstudio.com/r/opensuse-152/pkgs/R-${R_VERSION}-1-1.x86_64.rpm
Then install the package:
sudo zypper --no-gpg-checks install R-${R_VERSION}-1-1.x86_64.rpm
Verify R installation
Test that R was successfully installed by running:
/opt/R/${R_VERSION}/bin/R --version
Add R to the system path
To ensure that R is available on the system path, create symbolic links to the version of R that you installed:
sudo ln -s /opt/R/${R_VERSION}/bin/R /usr/local/bin/R
sudo ln -s /opt/R/${R_VERSION}/bin/Rscript /usr/local/bin/Rscript
Optional post-installation steps
You may want to install additional system dependencies for R packages. We recommend installing a TeX distribution (such as TinyTeX or TeX Live) and Pandoc. For more information on system dependencies, see system requirements for R packages.
If you want to install multiple versions of R on the same system, you can repeat these steps to install a different version of R alongside existing versions.
Developer Documentation
This repository orchestrates builds using a variety of tools. The instructions below outline the components in the stack and describe how to add a new platform or inspect an existing platform.
Adding a new platform.
Dockerfile
Create a builder/Dockerfile.platform-version
(where platform-version
is ubuntu-1604
or centos-7
, etc.) This file must contain four major tasks:
- an
OS_IDENTIFIER
env with theplatform-version
. - a step which ensures the R source build dependencies are installed
- The
awscli
, 1.17.10+ if installed viapip
, for uploading tarballs to S3 COPY
andENTRYPOINT
for thebuild.sh
file inbuilder/
.
docker-compose.yml
A new service in the docker-compose file named according to the platform-version
and containing the proper entries:
command: ./build.sh
environment:
- R_VERSION=${R_VERSION} # for testing out R builds locally
- LOCAL_STORE=/tmp/output # ensures that output tarballs are persisted locally
build:
context: .
dockerfile: Dockerfile.debian-9
image: r-builds:debian-9
volumes:
- ./integration/tmp:/tmp/output # path to output tarballs
Job definition
IN serverless-resources.yml
you'll need to add a job definition that points to the ECR image.
rBuildsBatchJobDefinitionDebian9:
Type: AWS::Batch::JobDefinition
Properties:
Type: container
ContainerProperties:
Command:
- ./build.sh
Vcpus: 4
Memory: 4096
JobRoleArn:
"Fn::GetAtt": [ rBuildsEcsTaskIamRole, Arn ]
Image: #{AWS::AccountId}.dkr.ecr.#{AWS::Region}.amazonaws.com/r-builds:debian-9
Environment variables in the serverless.yml functions.
The serverless functions which trigger R builds need to be informed of new platforms.
- Add a
JOB_DEFINITION_ARN_PlatformVersion
env variable with a ref to the Job definition above. - Append the
platform-version
toSUPPORTED_PLATFORMS
.
environment:
# snip
JOB_DEFINITION_ARN_debian_9:
Ref: rBuildsBatchJobDefinitionDebian9
SUPPORTED_PLATFORMS: ubuntu-1604,ubuntu-1804,debian-9,debian-10,centos-7,centos-8,opensuse-42,opensuse-15
Makefile
In order for the makefile to push these new platforms to ECR, add them to the PLATFORMS variable near the top of the Makefile
Submit a Pull Request
Once you've followed the steps above, submit a pull request. On successful merge, builds for this platform will begin to be available from the CDN.
"Break Glass"
Periodically, someone with access to these resources may need to re-trigger every R version/platform combination. This quite easy with the serverless
tool installed.
# Rebuild all R versions
serverless invoke stepf -n rBuilds -d '{"force": true}'
# Rebuild specific R versions
serverless invoke stepf -n rBuilds -d '{"force": true, "versions": ["3.6.3", "4.0.2"]}'
Testing
To test the R builds locally, you can build the images:
# Build images for all platforms
make docker-build
# Or build the image for a single platform
(cd builder && docker-compose build ubuntu-2004)
Then run the build script:
# Build R for all platforms
R_VERSION=4.0.5 make docker-build-r
# Build R for a single platform
(cd builder && R_VERSION=4.0.5 docker-compose up ubuntu-2004)
# Alternatively, run the build script from within a container
docker run -it --rm --entrypoint "/bin/bash" r-builds:ubuntu-2004
# Build R 4.0.5
R_VERSION=4.0.5 ./build.sh
# Build R devel
R_VERSION=devel ./build.sh
# Build a prerelease version of R (e.g., alpha or beta)
R_VERSION=rc R_TARBALL_URL=https://cran.r-project.org/src/base-prerelease/R-latest.tar.gz ./build.sh