RStudio

The RStudio application will launch an RStudio session with the specified resources using the selected R environment (r-env) version).

The user is automatically logged in to the RStudio session when pressing the Connect to RStudio Server button.

Selecting Multithreaded will set the environment variable OMP_NUM_THREADS, controlling the number of OpenMP threads, to the number of requested CPU cores. See r-env documentation on threading for more details.

When to use RStudio?

RStudio sessions are meant for interactive work, for example R script development and running light and medium-heavy analyses up to a few hours. Long, memory-intensive, or otherwise resource-heavy tasks are best carried out as non-interactive batch jobs.

Frequently asked questions about RStudio

RStudio is not starting and I see a grey screen. What should I do?

If an RStudio session fails to start or RStudio is extremely slow, first try resetting your RStudio user state as described below. These steps will clean up leftover data from previous interrupted RStudio sessions in two hidden folders in the user's home directory: .config/rstudio and .local/share/rstudio. These folders can be either renamed (to keep the contents) or deleted (if you are sure the contents are not needed).

Option 1: Use the file viewer in the web interface:

1. In the top left corner of the web interface dashboard, choose Files and Home Directory.
2. Click Show dotfiles.
3. Delete or rename the rstudio folders under .config and .local -> share.

Option 2: Use a terminal (for example a login node shell in the web interface) to delete or rename these folders. Here is an example how renaming would work:

mv ~/.config/rstudio ~/.config/rstudio-old
mv ~/.local/share/rstudio ~/.local/share/rstudio-old

If after this RStudio still fails to start or remains very slow, please contact CSC Service Desk.

How do I install an R package?

The R environment has over 1400 pre-installed R packages packages ready to use. The easiest way to check if a package is available is to try to load it with library(packagename). If a package is missing, you can install it yourself for your project by following the instructions for R package installation, or you can contact CSC Service Desk for a general installation available to all users.

How do I change the directory shown in the RStudio files panel?

By default, the files panel shows your home directory on the supercomputer. To change the directory, click the three dots on the top right of the panel. In the box that appears, type the target directory, for example /scratch/<project>.

More information

For more information on the R environment, see the r-env documentation. If you have a question, please contact CSC Service Desk.

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