Can each user be assigned an R version in RStudio Server open source?

[tmoorman]

From the documentation, it's not clear whether users can be assigned an R version in RStudio Server open source. Is that possible? For example, can a "profiles" file be created as follows?

[my_userid]
r-version = /opt/R/3.1.0
#or#
rsession-which-r = /opt/R/4.2.0

If this is possible and done within a profiles file, should the global default R version also be configured in the profiles file? Or, will the default R version in the rserver.conf file be sufficient?

Thank you for your help!

[tmoorman]

Starting in RStudio Server 1.3 (our version is 1.2.1335, released April 8, 2019, and the newest version is 1.4.1106, released February 22, 2021), a user’s preferred version of R can be specified in the rstudio-prefs.json file in the global-level /etc/rstudio folder or in the user-level ~/.config/rstudio folder.

See https://blog.rstudio.com/2020/02/18/rstudio-1-3-preview-configuration/ and https://docs.rstudio.com/ide/server-pro/session-user-settings.html for user setting options in newer versions of RStudio Server.

See https://support.rstudio.com/hc/en-us/articles/200716783-RStudio-Release-History for RStudio release history and https://www.rstudio.com/products/rstudio/download-server/redhat-centos/ for Red Hat downloads of the newest version of RStudio Server.

[rstub]

Support for multiple versions of R is available only in RStudio Server Pro, not in RStudio Server Open Source.

[tmoorman]

@rstub . Thank you for the reply.

Could you please provide some more information as to how you've come to that conclusion?

I just had an email exchange with another RStudio Employee who said "That [first paragraph in my previous post] looks sound to me; the default_r_version can be specified in a user's rstudio-prefs.json file, and so it is not necessary to use the (Pro-only) profiles file for that specific, user-level task."

Unless the rstudio-prefs.json file doesn't exist in RStudio Server Open Source, couldn't a user switch from one version of R to another version of R by editing the rstudio-prefs.json file? It certainly appears to be possible from the blog post and the documentation I referred to.

Or, perhaps I'm misunderstanding what you mean by "support" or "multiple versions of R"?

Thank you for engaging, as I think this is an important topic for the community.

[rstub]

Interesting. According to 6 R Versions | RStudio Server Professional Edition 1.4.1106-5 support for multiple versions of R is a pro only feature. However, it might be the case that this refers to switching the version of R, not selecting different versions of R as only option for different users. Have you tried such a set-up?

[tmoorman]

The pro edition clearly has a dropdown menu for choosing R versions. The open source edition does not have this dropdown.

Unfortunately, my institution only has RStudio Server 1.2 installed. The rstudio-prefs.json file is not available until version 1.3. (Did you mention 1.4?! )

[rstub]

I have no tried this using the rocker/rstudio Docker container. My experience is that default_r_version in rstudio-prefs.json does not produce an error, but also does not have any effect on the used R version. So I do not expect that you will be able to use different R versions with RStudio Server Open Source this way.