How to set up conda-installed R for use with RStudio?

Question

I've been trying to set up my R using conda (eventually to use with Beaker Notebook) and I want to be able to use RStudio with my conda-installed version of R.

My method of installing R:

conda install -c r r
conda install -c r r-essentials
conda install -c r r-rserve
conda install -c r r-devtools
conda install -c r r-rcurl
conda install -c r r-RJSONIO
conda install -c r r-jpeg
conda install -c r r-png
conda install -c r r-roxygen2
conda install --channel https://conda.anaconda.org/bioconda bioconductor-edger

I ran that version of R (I only installed this version)

> version
               _                           
platform       x86_64-apple-darwin11.0.0   
arch           x86_64                      
os             darwin11.0.0                
system         x86_64, darwin11.0.0        
status                                     
major          3                           
minor          3.1                         
year           2016                        
month          06                          
day            21                          
svn rev        70800                       
language       R                           
version.string R version 3.3.1 (2016-06-21)
nickname       Bug in Your Hair   

Running R in Jupyter is kind of buggy. For example, when it outputs errors, it outputs to stdout and splits every character in the string with a linebreak. I want to use RStudio but I don't want to install another version of R.

How can I route my conda version of R into RStudio?

Here's my .bash_profile not sure if this will be useful:

$ cat ~/.bash_profile
# added by Anaconda3 4.0.0 installer
export PATH="/Users/jespinoz/anaconda/bin:$PATH"

export RSTUDIO_WHICH_R=/Users/jespinoz/anaconda/bin/R 

I've been trying to follow these tutorials but I am lost. I'm really not too familiar with environment variables and such things.

(1) https://support.rstudio.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/207830688-Using-RStudio-with-conda

(2) Launch mac eclipse with environment variables set

when I looked for my R it directed me to:

$ which R
/Users/jespinoz/anaconda/bin/R

but the directions from (1) is using this path which is very confusing:

/Users/jespinoz/anaconda/lib/R/bin/R

I tried doing what this guy did and added this to my .bash_profile but it didn't work. I even made a .bashrc but it still didn't work (I sourced both after I added the lines)

export RSTUDIO_WHICH_R=/Users/jespinoz/anaconda/bin/R

How to tell RStudio to use R version from Anaconda

Unfortunately, anaconda has no tutorial for this in https://docs.continuum.io/anaconda/ide_integration

Solution 1

So long as which R shows up a working R interpreter (which it should do if you have installed the r package from conda and activated your environment) then launching rstudio from that same environment should pick it up just fine.

For a test, on ArchLinux, I built and installed: https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/rstudio-desktop-git/

.. then force removed the R interpreter (pacman -Rdd r), then installed r from conda (conda install -c r r) and it worked fine. I then closed my terminal and opened a new one (so that the correct conda environment was not activated and successfully launched RStudio with the following command: RSTUDIO_WHICH_R=/home/ray/r_3_3_1-x64-3.5/bin/R rstudio

I think the crux is to launch RStudio from the right environment? Your ~/.bash_profile and ~/.bashrc are only sourced when you run bash. For environment variables to be set so that the your desktop environment knows about them, on Linux, you should put them in ~/.profile or else in /etc/pam.d (you may need to logout or shutdown after making those changes) and on OS X, you should check out https://apple.stackexchange.com/q/57385

Solution 2

See https://anaconda.org/r/rstudio:

$ conda install -c r rstudio

Then from command line:

$ rstudio

(It is how I installed it and it works.)

Solution 3

Update: ADD THIS TO ~/.bash_profile !

export RSTUDIO_WHICH_R="/Users/jespinoz/anaconda/bin/R"
launchctl setenv RSTUDIO_WHICH_R $RSTUDIO_WHICH_R

Credits to @Z-Shiyi for the last line https://github.com/conda/conda/issues/3316#issuecomment-241246755

---

An addition to what @Ray Donnelly said above. Basically, it has to be executed from the correct environment (i.e. run it from the terminal).

You can either:

(A) Put this in your ~/.bash_profile export RSTUDIO_WHICH_R=/Users/[yourusername]/anaconda/bin/R (if youre using conda but you could put any R path)

(B) then type this in the terminal after it's been sourced (either restart terminal or do source .bash_profile): open -a RStudio That should work.

or you can do what I did:

(A) open up automator (sorry if you're not on a mac; this will only work on mac)

(B) use a Run Shell Script

(C) then delete cat that's already in there and put in: export RSTUDIO_WHICH_R=/Users/[yourusername]/anaconda/bin/R open -a RStudio

(D) Save it as something like run_rstudio.app then just run that and it should work:

Solution 4

Launch RStudio from Activated Conda Environment

At least for Mac OS X, I find that it is sufficient to activate the environment in a shell session, then launch RStudio.

$ conda activate my_r_env
$ /Applications/RStudio.app/Contents/MacOS/RStudio

Once in R, one can verify that values of R.home() and .libPaths() point to the environment-specific locations.

The advantage here is that you aren't fixed to whatever was last set in the environment variables, e.g., via .bash_profile. Instead, one can have many R-based environments and switch between them (or run multiple ones simultaneously) without tampering with global settings.

Suggested Alias for Convenience

Perhaps the only global setting I might recommend is to add an alias for rstudio to your .bash_profile so you don't have to type the full path every time, like

alias rstudio='/Applications/RStudio.app/Contents/MacOS/RStudio &'

which enables one to then do

$ conda activate my_r_env
$ rstudio
$

where the & enables one to continue using the shell, or close it, without affecting the RStudio instance.

Solution 5

Update: The Anaconda Distribution now has packages for RStudio so you should be able to use that and not have to jump through any hoops at all. You can also install it directly the Anaconda Navigator.

View more solutions

Comments

[O.rka]

How can I make sure rstudio is launching from that same environemnt?

[O.rka]

I recently saw this when I opened up anaconda navigator for the first time. I added my solution above. It has been working perfectly so far.

[O.rka]

In hindsight, I should have done that. I don't think this was an option for when I first tried it. At least we have at least 3 different ways to get this to work for people :)

[Ray Donnelly]

Since the latest 4.3 release of Anaconda Distribution, none of this should be necessary. Installing and launching RStudio from Anaconda Navigator should 'just work' and, from Terminal, provided you activate your env properly (conda.io/docs/using/envs.html) open $CONDA_PREFIX/Applications/RStudio.app should also work.

[empty]

On Windows 10 and Anaconda3 it's simply conda install rstudio

[gsmafra]

Can't I use the conda R interpreter with a default RStudio installation (downloaded from RStudio website)?

[Belter]

$ rstudio &, run as a deamon process

[fry]

If you wish to have only one version of Rstudio (with your settings), but interact with different conda environments, this is the perfect solution (cannot attest to whether that works with other operating systems).

[Georg Heiler]

BUT: rstudio in conda is not updated. It seems to be rather outdated i.e. 1.1 on osx vs. now 1.4 available.

[merv]

Update: Anaconda abandoned maintaining RStudio builds for Conda, and while Conda Forge is discussing picking it up, there's no momentum. This might change, however, once RStudio transitions from Qt to Electron (supposed to drop this summer), since it should simplify the build. Anyway, point is Conda does not reliably provide RStudio builds.

[william_grisaitis]

down-voting for the headline, which is (1) outdated for anyone running macOS 11+ (a lot of ppl) and (2) kind of obnoxious

[Naeem Khoshnevis]

Works great with macOS.

[merv]

Outdated answer. As mentioned by others, RStudio from Conda is not maintained and will only work with at most R 3.6.