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r-builds

This repository orchestrates tools to produce R binaries. The binaries are available as a community resource, they are not professionally supported by Posit. 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 Posit Workbench.
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 Posit Cloud and shinyapps.io. Please open an issue to report a specific bug, or ask questions on Posit Community.

Supported Platforms

R binaries are built for the following Linux operating systems:

Ubuntu 20.04, 22.04, 24.04
Debian 10, 11, 12
CentOS 7
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7, 8, 9
openSUSE 15.5
openSUSE 15.6
SUSE Linux Enterprise 15 SP5
Fedora 39, 40, 41

Operating systems are supported until their vendor end-of-support dates, which can be found on the Posit Platform Support page. When an operating system has reached its end of support, builds for it will be discontinued, but existing binaries will continue to be available.

Supported R Versions

R binaries are primarily supported for the current R version and previous four minor versions of R. Older R versions down to R 3.0.0 are also built when possible, but support for older R versions is best effort and not guaranteed.

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.posit.co/r/versions.json

R_VERSION=4.3.3

Download and install R

Ubuntu/Debian Linux

Download the deb package:

# Ubuntu 20.04
curl -O https://cdn.posit.co/r/ubuntu-2004/pkgs/r-${R_VERSION}_1_amd64.deb

# Ubuntu 22.04
curl -O https://cdn.posit.co/r/ubuntu-2204/pkgs/r-${R_VERSION}_1_amd64.deb

# Ubuntu 24.04
curl -O https://cdn.posit.co/r/ubuntu-2404/pkgs/r-${R_VERSION}_1_amd64.deb

# Debian 10
curl -O https://cdn.posit.co/r/debian-10/pkgs/r-${R_VERSION}_1_amd64.deb

# Debian 11
curl -O https://cdn.posit.co/r/debian-11/pkgs/r-${R_VERSION}_1_amd64.deb

# Debian 12
curl -O https://cdn.posit.co/r/debian-12/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 and RHEL 9 only):

# CentOS / RHEL 7
sudo yum install https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-7.noarch.rpm

# Rocky Linux 9 / AlmaLinux 9
sudo dnf install dnf-plugins-core
sudo dnf config-manager --set-enabled crb
sudo dnf install epel-release

# RHEL 9
sudo dnf install https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-9.noarch.rpm

On RHEL 7, you may also need to enable the Optional repository:

sudo subscription-manager repos --enable "rhel-*-optional-rpms"

# If running RHEL 7 in a public cloud, such as Amazon EC2, enable the
# Optional repository from Red Hat Update Infrastructure (RHUI) instead
sudo yum install yum-utils
sudo yum-config-manager --enable "rhel-*-optional-rpms"

On RHEL 9, you may also need to enable the CodeReady Linux Builder repository:

sudo subscription-manager repos --enable codeready-builder-for-rhel-9-$(arch)-rpms

# If running RHEL 9 in a public cloud, such as Amazon EC2, enable the CodeReady
# Linux Builder repository from Red Hat Update Infrastructure (RHUI) instead
sudo dnf install dnf-plugins-core
sudo dnf config-manager --enable codeready-builder-for-rhel-9-*-rpms

Download the rpm package:

# CentOS / RHEL 7
curl -O https://cdn.posit.co/r/centos-7/pkgs/R-${R_VERSION}-1-1.x86_64.rpm

# RHEL 8 / Rocky Linux 8 / AlmaLinux 8
curl -O https://cdn.posit.co/r/centos-8/pkgs/R-${R_VERSION}-1-1.x86_64.rpm

# RHEL 9 / Rocky Linux 9 / AlmaLinux 9
curl -O https://cdn.posit.co/r/rhel-9/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

Download the rpm package:

# openSUSE 15.5 / SLES 15 SP5
curl -O https://cdn.posit.co/r/opensuse-155/pkgs/R-${R_VERSION}-1-1.x86_64.rpm

# openSUSE 15.6 / SLES 15 SP6
curl -O https://cdn.posit.co/r/opensuse-156/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

Fedora Linux

Download the rpm package:

# Fedora 39
curl -O https://cdn.posit.co/r/fedora-39/pkgs/R-${R_VERSION}-1-1.x86_64.rpm

# Fedora 40
curl -O https://cdn.posit.co/r/fedora-40/pkgs/R-${R_VERSION}-1-1.x86_64.rpm

# Fedora 41
curl -O https://cdn.posit.co/r/fedora-41/pkgs/R-${R_VERSION}-1-1.x86_64.rpm

Then install the package:

sudo dnf install r-${R_VERSION}_1_amd64.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.

Building from source

To build the R binaries from source, you will need to have Git, Docker, and make installed.

First, clone the Git repository locally and navigate to it.

git clone https://github.com/rstudio/R-builds
cd R-builds

Then, run the build-r-$PLATFORM Make target with the R_VERSION environment variable set to your desired R version, where $PLATFORM is one of the supported platform identifiers, such as ubuntu-2204 or rhel-9.

export PLATFORM=ubuntu-2204
export R_VERSION=4.1.3

make build-r-$PLATFORM

The built DEB or RPM package will be available in the builder/integration/tmp/$PLATFORM directory.

$ ls builder/integration/tmp/$PLATFORM
r-4.1.3_1_amd64.deb

Custom installation path

R is installed to /opt/R/${R_VERSION} by default. If you want to customize the installation path, set the optional R_INSTALL_PATH environment variable to a custom location such as /opt/custom/R-4.1.3.

export PLATFORM=rhel-9
export R_VERSION=4.1.3
export R_INSTALL_PATH=/opt/custom/R-4.1.3

make build-r-$PLATFORM

Submitting pull requests

For significant changes to the R builds, such as adding a new platform or updating existing builds, include any relevant testing notes and changes that may affect existing users, such as system dependency changes.

On successful merge, the changes will be automatically deployed to the staging environment.

A project maintainer can then trigger the builds in staging to test the changes, and then deploy/build in production when the changes have been verified.

Adding a new platform.

R configuration

Builds should use OpenBLAS and align their BLAS/LAPACK configuration with the default distribution of R when possible, for maximum compatibility of binary R packages across R distributions. For example, Ubuntu/Debian should be configured to use external BLAS, RHEL 9+ should use FlexiBLAS (to match EPEL), and SUSE should use shared BLAS. The BLAS/LAPACK library should be swappable at runtime when possible.
DEB/RPM packages should include the minimum set of dependencies when possible. Different R versions may have different dependencies, so packaging scripts may conditionally add dependencies based on the R version.

README

Add the new platform to the Supported Platforms list.
Add DEB or RPM package download instructions for the new platform.

Dockerfile

Create a builder/Dockerfile.platform-version (where platform-version is ubuntu-2204 or centos-7, etc.) This file must contain four major tasks:

an OS_IDENTIFIER env with the platform-version.
a step which ensures the R source build dependencies are installed
The awscli for uploading packages and tarballs to S3
COPY for the packaging script (builder/package.platform-version) to /package.sh
COPY and ENTRYPOINT for the build.sh file in builder/.

Packaging script

Create a builder/package.platform-version script (where platform-version is ubuntu-2204 or centos-7, etc.).

docker-compose.yml

A new service in the docker-compose file named according to the platform-version and containing the proper entries:

ubuntu-2404:
  command: ./build.sh
  environment:
    - R_VERSION=${R_VERSION}  # for testing out R builds locally
    - R_INSTALL_PATH=${R_INSTALL_PATH}  # custom installation path
    - LOCAL_STORE=/tmp/output  # ensures that output tarballs are persisted locally
  build:
    context: .
    dockerfile: Dockerfile.ubuntu-2404
  image: r-builds:ubuntu-2404
  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.

rBuildsBatchJobDefinitionUbuntu2404:
  Type: AWS::Batch::JobDefinition
  Properties:
    Type: container
    ContainerProperties:
      Command:
        - ./build.sh
      Vcpus: 4
      Memory: 4096
      JobRoleArn:
        "Fn::GetAtt": [ rBuildsEcsTaskIamRole, Arn ]
      Image: !Sub "${AWS::AccountId}.dkr.ecr.${AWS::Region}.amazonaws.com/r-builds:ubuntu-2404"
    Timeout:
      AttemptDurationSeconds: 7200

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 to SUPPORTED_PLATFORMS.

environment:
  # snip
  JOB_DEFINITION_ARN_debian_11:
    Ref: rBuildsBatchJobDefinitionDebian11
  SUPPORTED_PLATFORMS: debian-10,centos-7,centos-8

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.

test/docker-compose.yml

A new service in the test/docker-compose.yml file named according to the platform-version and containing the proper entries:

  ubuntu-2204:
    image: ubuntu:jammy
    command: /r-builds/test/test-apt.sh
    environment:
      - OS_IDENTIFIER=ubuntu-2204
      - R_VERSION=${R_VERSION}
    volumes:
      - ../:/r-builds

Quick install script

Update the quick install script at install.sh, if necessary, to support the new platform.

Once you've followed the steps above, submit a pull request.

R builds tarballs

In addition to the DEB and RPM packages, R builds also publishes tarballs of the binaries at: https://cdn.posit.co/r/${OS_IDENTIFIER}/R-${R_VERSION}-${OS_IDENTIFIER}.tar.gz. These may be used with a manual installation of R's system dependencies. System dependencies will differ between R versions, so inspect the corresponding DEB or RPM package for the list of system dependencies.

"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

Tests are automatically run on each push that changes a file in builder/, test/, or the Makefile. These tests validate that R was correctly configured, built, and packaged. By default, the tests run for the last 5 minor R versions on each platform.

To run the tests manually, you can navigate to the GitHub Actions workflow page and use "Run workflow" to run the tests from a custom branch, list of platforms, and list of R versions.

To skip the tests, add [skip ci] to your commit message. See Skipping workflow runs for more information.

To test the R builds locally, you can use the build-r-$PLATFORM and test-r-$PLATFORM targets to build R and run the tests. The tests use the quick install script to install R, using a locally built R if present, or otherwise a build from the CDN.

# Build R 4.1.3 for Ubuntu 22
R_VERSION=4.1.3 make build-r-ubuntu-2204

# Test R 4.1.3 for Ubuntu 22
R_VERSION=4.1.3 make test-r-ubuntu-2204

Alternatively, you can build an image using the docker-build-$PLATFORM target, launch a bash session within a container using the bash-$PLATFORM target, and interactively run the build script:

# Build the image for Ubuntu 22
make docker-build-ubuntu-2204

# Launch a bash session for Ubuntu 22
make bash-ubuntu-2204

# Build R 4.1.3
R_VERSION=4.1.3 ./build.sh

# Build R devel with parallel execution to speed up the build
MAKEFLAGS=-j4 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