Using renv cache with rocker/rstudio

[alsmnn]

Hello everybody,
I would like to use the renv-package with your rstudio images, more precisely I would like to use the renv cache folder of the host as the cache folder in the container.
There is the environment variable RENV_PATHS_CACHE, but I don't know the right place to mention it in the dockerfile.
Setting it via ENV RENV_PATHS_CACHE=/renv/cache in the dockerfile doesn't seem to pass through to Rstudio.
Can you guide me in the rigth direction?
Can I set it in ~/.Renviron in the container?

For further info see:
rstudio/renv#446

Stuff I already tried:

• Manually setting Sys.setenv(RENV_PATHS_CACHE = "/renv/cache") inside the container. This works, but is a manual step I would like to remove.
• Setting environment variable in dockerfile and create image -> environment variable isn't set in Rstudio.
• Setting environment variable while calling docker run -> environment variable isn't set in Rstudio.

docker run -d --rm --name renv \
-e USERID=$UID \
-e PASSWORD=fake \
-e RENV_PATHS_CACHE=/renv/cache \
-v path/to/renv_cache/on_host:/renv/cache \
-v $(pwd):/work \
-p 8080:8787 my_rstudio_image:4.0.2

and the dockerfile of my_rstudio_image:4.0.2 looks like this:

FROM rocker/r-ver:4.0.2

LABEL org.label-schema.license="GPL-2.0" \
              org.label-schema.vcs-url="https://github.co/rocker-org/rocker-versioned" \
              org.label-schema.vendor="Rocker Project" \
              maintainer="Carl Boettiger <[email protected]>"

ENV S6_Version=v2.0.0.1
ENV RSTUDIO_VERSION=1.3.959
ENV RENV_PATHS_CACHE=/renv/cache

RUN /rocker_scripts/install_rstudio.sh
RUN /rocker_scripts/install_pandoc.sh
RUN /rocker_scripts/install_tidyverse.sh
RUN install2.r --error --skipinstalled -r $CRAN \
          	renv && rm -rf /tmp/downloaded_packages

EXPOSE 8787

CMD ["/init"]

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.
Cheers

[alsmnn]

Setting it in ~/.Renvrion seems to do the trick.
The dockerfile looks like this now:

FROM rocker/r-ver:4.0.2

LABEL org.label-schema.license="GPL-2.0" \
              org.label-schema.vcs-url="https://github.co/rocker-org/rocker-versioned" \
              org.label-schema.vendor="Rocker Project" \
              maintainer="Carl Boettiger <[email protected]>"

ENV S6_Version=v2.0.0.1
ENV RSTUDIO_VERSION=1.3.959
ENV RENV_PATHS_CACHE=/renv/cache

RUN /rocker_scripts/install_rstudio.sh
RUN /rocker_scripts/install_pandoc.sh
RUN /rocker_scripts/install_tidyverse.sh
RUN install2.r --error --skipinstalled -r $CRAN \
          	renv && rm -rf /tmp/downloaded_packages && \
            echo 'RENV_PATHS_CACHE=/renv/cache' >> /home/rstudio/.Renviron

EXPOSE 8787

CMD ["/init"]

but is this the correct way of doing this?

[Pit-Storm]

@alsmnn

I think this is realted to #170. Unfortunately the problem will resist, that you have to write an upstream (your own) Dockerfile, but you can use that one as a template and after you specified the ENV-Vars you want to use, you can dynamically change tham during startup. There will be no need to write different Dockerfiles for multiple different paths.

BTW: If you are using ~/.Renviron to set the renv cache it is not getting set if a .Rproject .Renviron file is loaded. Consider to set in in Renviron.site/Rprofile.site.

[eitsupi]

I close this as I believe it has been answered. Feel free to reopen it again if necessary.