Using R with conda
For Linux, macOS and Windows
If you have conda installed, you can easily install the R programming language and over 80 of the most used R packages for data science with one command. Conda helps you keep your packages and dependencies up to date. You can also easily create and share your own custom R packages.
R-Essentials works very much like Anaconda:
- Installs all of the most popular packages with all of their dependencies with one command:
conda install -c r r-essentials
- Update all of the packages and their dependencies with one command:
conda update -c r r-essentials
- Update a single package in R-Essentials (if a new version of the package is available in the R channel) with the command
conda update r-XXXX
How to install “R Essentials”
- Download and install Anaconda
- Install the R Essentials package into the current environment:
conda install -c r r-essentials
Create and share your own custom R bundle
Building and sharing your own custom R bundles with others is like building and sharing conda packages.
For example, create a simple custom R bundle meta-package named “Custom-R-Bundle” containing several popular programs and their dependencies with the command:
conda metapackage custom-r-bundle 0.1.0 --dependencies r-irkernel jupyter r-ggplot2 r-dplyr --summary "My custom R bundle"
Now you can easily share your new meta-package with friends and colleagues by uploading it to your channel on Anaconda Cloud:
conda install anaconda-client
anaconda login
anaconda upload path/to/custom-r-bundle-0.1.0-0.tar.bz2
Your friends and colleagues now have access to your Custom-R-Bundle from any computer with the command:
conda install -c <your anaconda.org username> custom-r-bundle
For more information, see Christine Doig’s blog post Jupyter and conda for R language.
Next, let’s look at Using Microsoft R Open.