Why Docker?

Recently I had a problem with a R package I would like to install. However, this package requires higher version of R than my current one. I cannot upgrade my R due to my system problem. So I decided to use Docker, which solves a lot of problems for me.

Step by Step Installation

Assuming you have Docker installed. It’s pretty easy to get rocker/rstudio using Docker:

• Open your terminal
• In the command line, type:
  • docker pull rocker/rstudio (add sudo if you have permission denied error)
  • docker images (you should find the repository for rocker/rstudio)

Use Rstudio with docker

• Now you have rocker/rstudio in you docker. You first need to create a container using the following commands:
  • docker run -d -p 8787:8787 -e USER= -e PASSWORD= rocker/rstudio
• You can check the docker container using:
  • docker container list
• If you can find the container for image rocker/rstudio, it means you successfully created the container. (PS. remember the name of your container, it’s important)
• Use your browser and visit “localhost:8787”, you should find the Rstudio server is running. Firefox is suggested for the browser cuz I met some problems with google chrome.
• Now you can use R as usual. You can stop the running of container by using:
  • docker stop
• If you want to use your container in the future, simply remember its name. Using this commands to start your container:
  • docker start