Store Linux binaries in package server

[jeroen]

Just like rspm, but only for ubuntu 20.04.

[gorkang]

Having binaries for a few of the most used Linux distros (Ubuntu LTS, etc) would be wonderful.

Posit Public Package Manager does this, and it is very convenient.

[jeroen]

We support linux binaries, but currently we only build for r:release under ubuntu:latest (which is jammy as of time writing), because building and storing for many distro's and r versions would be too expensive right now.

We mostly do this for ourselves, such that we get quick installations of dependencies on our own build environment, but you can use the binaries as well. It works slightly different then rsudio's thing: you need to add the repo with binaries to your repos https://{{universe}}/bin/linux/{{distro}}/{{r-version}}/, for example:

https://ropensci.r-universe.dev/bin/linux/jammy/4.2

You can test what is in there:

available.packages(repos='https://ropensci.r-universe.dev/bin/linux/jammy/4.2')

Here is how we enable it in CI where MY_UNIVERSE is set to the universe URL, e.g. https://r-lib.r-universe.dev: https://github.com/r-universe-org/base-image/blob/f20ec9fc6f51ef8a89aad489206a43790bd9bf77/Rprofile#L11-L16

If you inspect the build logs under linux (under "build source package") you should be able to see that binaries are pulled from this repo. e.g https://github.com/r-universe/r-lib/actions/runs/3635229515/jobs/6134134741

[gorkang]

This is fantastic. Thanks a lot @jeroen !

[jeroen]

Updated the answer a bit, thanks for reviving this issue :)

[eitsupi]

We mostly do this for ourselves, such that we get quick installations of dependencies on our own build environment, but you can use the binaries as well. It works slightly different then rsudio's thing: you need to add the repo with binaries to your repos https://{{universe}}/bin/linux/{{distro}}/{{r-version}}/, for example:

Do you plan to display this in the UI or somewhere?
I use this personally (PRQL/prqlc-r#7), but I don't think many users realize it.

[jeroen]

I wasn't sure people would care about it much, because it is currently limited to ubuntu:latest and r:release. But we could display it somewhere...

[gorkang]

I wasn't sure people would care about it much, because it is currently limited to ubuntu:latest and r:release. But we could display it somewhere...

Not sure how many "of us" there are, but we do care about this :)

It would be great if this was well documented. After using the Rstudio Package Manager, it is kind of hard moving away from binaries.

[jeroen]

OK I have added a link to the linux binary on the package homepage, and also a link with few words of caution to the faq:

[eitsupi]

That looks wonderful!
Thanks!