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Posit R Docker Images

Posit creates and distributes an opinionated set of R binaries for different Linux distributions. These Docker images are built to use those R binaries. The images are intentionally minimal, their primary purpose is to serve as the basis for other images requiring R.

For a quick way to get started with R or RStudio, refer to the Rocker project.

WARNING: These images are considered experimental, and may change. They should not be used for strictly reproducible environments (yet!).

Sample Usage

These images can be used to execute R:

docker run --rm -it rstudio/r-base:4.3-jammy

These images can also be used as the basis for other custom images. To get started, use an image as the base in a Dockerfile:

FROM rstudio/r-base:4.3-jammy

Releases and Tags

The images follow these tag patterns:

Pattern	Example	Description
`rstudio/r-base:distro`	`rstudio/r-base:focal`	Base operating system + system libraries required by R.
`rstudio/r-base:x.y.z-distro`	`rstudio/r-base:4.0.3-focal`	R version `x.y.z` on the specified OS
`rstudio/r-base:x.y-distro`	`rstudio/r-base:4.0-focal`	Latest R version `x.y.z` on the specified OS, where the patch version `z` floats over time. For example, if R 4.0.4 is released, `rstudio/r-base:4.0-focal` would switch from R 4.0.3 to R 4.0.4.

The following distributions are supported:

Distribution	Full Name
focal	Ubuntu 20.04
jammy	Ubuntu 22.04
noble	Ubuntu 24.04
bullseye	Debian 11
bookworm	Debian 12
centos7	CentOS 7
rockylinux8	Rocky Linux 8
rockylinux9	Rocky Linux 9
opensuse155	openSUSE 15.5
opensuse156	openSUSE 15.6

All minor versions of R since 3.1 are supported, on the latest patch release.

New versions of R are added when they're available on the Posit CDN, though there may be some delay between the release of R and the release of the Docker image.

New operating systems are added on a less frequent basis.

What is R?

R is a language and environment for statistical computing and graphics. For more information:

Resources

Support

Posit does not provide professional support for these images or the R language. The best place to ask questions and provide feedback is the Posit Community.

License

View license information for R.

Developer Resources

The following section contains information for those wishing to build these images themselves.

In general, the structure consists of the following:

base: Base images that start with a minimal OS and add the necessary system requirements required by R.
x.y: Images for each major.minor version of R. These images start from the base images and add R, copied from the RStudio CDN.

Building Images

# Build and test all images
make

# Build and test images for a specific R version
make VERSIONS=4.0

# Build and test images for a specific distro
make VARIANTS=focal

# Build a specific image
make build-4.0-focal
# Build a specific patch version
make build-4.0.3-focal

# Test a specific image
make test-4.0-focal
# Test a specific patch version
make test-4.0.3-focal

# Build and test all images, including historic patch versions
make INCLUDE_PATCH_VERSIONS=yes

Updating Images

Update update.sh and Makefile with the new distro or R version
Update README.md
Create a new /base/<distro>/Dockerfile

Generate new Dockerfiles:

make update-all

# Or, using Docker
make update-all-docker

Build and test the new images locally
Submit a pull request

Rebuilding Images

Rebuild images when the R build has been updated but there are no Dockerfile or base image changes. This ignores the Docker cache and reinstalls R in the image.

# rebuild all images
make rebuild-all

# Rebuild a specific image.
make rebuild-3.4-focal