Creating a Mamba environment for specific R versions

Tempest is now configured to run RStudio-Server on compute nodes.

RStudio-Server will accept any version of R you have installed. RCI recommends using Mamba (aka. Anaconda) environments as they are easily managed and R packages (extensions) are easily installed with all the proper dependencies.

 To install R versions beyond the default 4.2.1, log into Tempest through the Terminal:

ssh <NetID>@tempest-login.msu.montana.edu

 To create a mamba environment with a new version of R:

module load Mamba
mamba init # ONLY run this if you haven't initialized the shell
mamba create -n <name> r-base='VERSION' #<name> is the name of the environment

To get a list of available R versions (only a subset of output shown below):

mamba search r-base  # r-base is the base R package

mamba search rbase

*Note: RCI recommends you use the Anaconda channel “conda-forge”, it is the most widely supported. This will be the default in the below commands.

Create a new mamba environment for your specific R version:

mamba create -n <name_of_environment> r-base='<name_of_R_version> 

# For example: 
mamba create -n r3.5.1 r-base='3.5.1'

Verify successful creation of the Mamba environment: 

mamba env list
# conda environments:
#
r3.5.1                   /home/<your_net_id>/.conda/envs/r3.5.1

The first column shows you the names of your mamba environment. The second shows you the location of your mamba environment