Skip to content

Week 5

June 24 - June 29

Fix: Automatically Detecting and Printing the Default R Version in which_r Script

While implementing choice validation in the which_r script, I decided to enhance it further by dynamically detecting and printing the default R version within the R Dev Container. Previously, the script explicitly printed a hardcoded R version, but with this update, it now automatically retrieves the latest default R version.

Issue Number : #134

Pull Request : #144

update to which_r helper script

built_in_r_version=$(R --version | grep "^R version" | awk '{print $3}')

echo "Which version of R should be used in new R terminals?"
echo "  1. R 4.4.0 (release version built into this container)" <- previous code
echo "  1. R $built_in_r_version (release version built into this container)"

Explaination: - Built-in R Version Detection: The script uses the R --version command to dynamically extract the version of the built-in R installation. This is achieved by piping the output through grep and awk to capture just the version number. - Dynamic Version Printing: The detected R version is stored in the built_in_r_version variable and then printed within the script's prompt. This change ensures that the script always displays the correct version of the built-in R, even if it changes in the future.

actions: docker build schedule for main branch and devel branch

I also updated the Docker build schedule actions to automatically rebuild the Docker image twice a month. Since the latest version of R is typically released twice a week, this workflow ensures that the Docker image always includes the most up-to-date version of R.

Pull Request : #142

Docs for Live Share

Added documentation on using Live Share, as this feature is not available in R Studio. Having comprehensive docs on Live Share usage is a valuable addition for collaborative work within the R Dev Container.

Issue Number : #135

Pull Request : #138

Adding project version number to Documentation navbar

The mkdocs material has option to show repo info in navbar, so I did config in mkdocs to show project release version in navbar.

Issue Number : #130

Pull Request : #141

Release of R Dev Container v0.2

Documentation split into set of markdown files. These are used to create the documentation website https://contributor.r-project.org/r-dev-env/ and the user-focused pages can be accessed directly within the codespace, linked from an index that opens when the codespace first starts. New documentation pages/topics:

  • Restarting and stopping the codespace
  • Live Share
  • Local Setup
  • Updating Source Code
  • Creating a patch file
  • Multiple R Versions
  • SVN Help
  • Contributor Guide (for R Dev Container itself)
  • Troubleshooting
  • Building R documentation now instructs to build R with recommended packages as it only takes a few more minutes to set up and enables all the tests to be run with make check.
  • Updated GitHub Actions, so that the container is rebuilt twice a month with updated software, including the latest version of R.
  • Disconnected Codespace from r-dev-env GitHub repository, so changes are not tracked as changes to code for the container itself.
  • Updated Codespace settings so that checkouts of the R sources are recognised as Subversion repositories, connecting to VS Code version control tab.
  • Updated Codespace settings so that the R code linter is turned off (cannot define linter for base R!)
  • Enabled httpgd graphics device to replace the default of plotting to PNG.
  • Modified the default settings of $BUILDDIR and $TOP_SRCDIR to give a more logical setup for working with multiple R versions.
  • Added which_r script to set the R version to use in R terminals, rather than using sudo make install to overwrite installed R release version.
  • Added set_build_r bash function to facilitate custom settings of $BUILDDIR and $TOP_SRCDIR for working with multiple R versions.

Pull Request : #146