r-builds

This repository orchestrates tools to produce R binaries obtainable from: https://cdn.rstudio.com/r/versions.json. 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, documented 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, and address questions on RStudio Community.

Example Usage

These binaries are designed to be copied onto a server, as opposed to installed using a system package manager like apt or yum. This approach allows administrators to offer multiple versions of R side-by-side.

# Pre-req install runtime pre-reqs
# Then copy the desired R version from the CD

OS_IDENTIFIER=ubuntu-1804
R_VERSION=3.5.3

wget -O R-${R_VERSION}.tar.gz https://cdn.rstudio.com/r/${OS_IDENTIFIER}/R-${R_VERSION}-${OS_IDENTIFIER}.tar.gz 
mkdir -p /opt/R 
tar zx -C /opt/R -f ./R-${R_VERSION}.tar.gz 
rm R-${R_VERSION}.tar.gz

# execute R from this directory
/opt/R/${R_VERSION}/bin/R -e 'capabilities()'

# optionally add this version to the path
PATH=/opt/R/${R_VERSION}/bin:${PATH}

# OR optionally link the binaries to /usr
ln -s /opt/R/${R_VERSION}/bin/R /usr/bin/R 
ln -s /opt/R/${R_VERSION}/bin/Rscript /usr/bin/Rscript
ln -s /opt/R/${R_VERSION}/lib/R /usr/lib/R 

Please see r-docker and r-system-requirements for more information on using these binaries. The r-docker repository documents required runtime system dependencies and provides users with docker images containing these dependencies. The r-system-requirements repository contains information on the additional system dependencies that may be required to install and use R packages.

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Developer Documentation

This repository orchestrates builds using a variety of tools built. 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-74, etc.) This file must contain four major tasks:

1. an OS_IDENTIFIER env with the platform-version.
2. a step which ensures the R source build dependencies are installed
3. The awscli, most likely installed via pip for uploading tarballs to S3
4. COPY and ENTRYPOINT for the build.sh file in builder/.

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.

1. Add a JOB_DEFINITION_ARN_PlatformVersion env variable with a ref to the Job definition above.
2. Append the platform-version to SUPPORTED_PLATFORMS.

environment:
  # snip
  JOB_DEFINITION_ARN_debian_9:
    Ref: rBuildsBatchJobDefinitionDebian9
  SUPPORTED_PLATFORMS: ubuntu-1604,ubuntu-1804,debian-9

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.

serverless invoke stepf -n rBuilds -d '{"force": true}'