using docker as a backend R terminal [enhancement] [feature]

[ConYel]

Dear @jalvesaq first of all I want to thank you about the amazing work
on developing and maintaining Nvim-R + Rnvim.

What am I asking is a bit of an old feature, which is to use containers as a back end to run R and perform all the data analysis there.
I have read the following issue from Nvim-R:
jalvesaq/Vim-R#259
and I am thinking if there is the possibility to integrate on R.nvim (on the server side probably?) to have a direct connection (using sockets maybe?) so as to send directly the commands in the container and do fast back and forth communication.

My workflow would like to be:

• nvim + R.nvim and any other dependencies on host (here there is an issue with the need of R and R.nvim dependencies polluting host, but I will not address it as a current issue for now)
• R library folder for each project that would be mount as a volume on container run (this of course can just be always the same folder for simplicity, at first at least)
• data folder for each project that would be mount as a volume on container run

I am interested in implementing/developing this tooling.
Let me know if you are interested to accept such [enhancement]/[feature request] and you would like to provide any information which I can read so as to follow up on this!

Cheers

[jalvesaq]

Every now and then, someone asks for something like this (Python environment, Docker, Conda, remote access through ssh...). I don't need any of these alternative ways of running R.nvim, but I did implement support for running R in a remote machine through ssh (https://github.com/R-nvim/R.nvim/blob/main/doc/remote_access.md). I can't develop or maintain integration with Docker, but if you develop it, and it doesn't introduce new bugs, and you are wiling to maintain it, we could merge the pull request.

[ConYel]

Dear @jalvesaq ,
thank you for the prompt reply, I would be happy to try to develop it as
I would like to personally use it. I have read about the remote_access using ssh, which is something that can be used but it seems a bit too much to use ssh to connect to the local container to perform the analysis.
Is there a document(except of the README.md) that explains the general architecture and how R.nvim works, in order to have it as a template?

[jalvesaq]

Is there a document(except of the README.md) that explains the general architecture and how R.nvim works, in order to have it as a template?

Only the README.

There are general plugins for Neovim + Docker. Maybe they will do what you need. Of course, I don't know any of them.

[ConYel]

Hello again, so I was trying first to make R.nvim to work with docker by following the instructions here: jalvesaq/Vim-R#768 .
I created a file

#!/bin/sh
docker run -it --rm -v ~/R/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-library/4.5:/usr/local/lib/R/site-library/ --entrypoint "R $*"  rdev:0.3 

and my ~/.config/nvim/lua/kickstart/plugins/R-nvim.lua

is like this:

return {
  'R-nvim/R.nvim',
  config = function()
    -- Create a table with the options to be passed to setup()
    ---@type RConfigUserOpts
    local opts = {
      R_args = { '--quiet', '--no-save' },
      hook = {
        on_filetype = function()
          -- This function will be called at the FileType event
          -- of files supported by R.nvim. This is an
          -- opportunity to create mappings local to buffers.
          vim.api.nvim_buf_set_keymap(0, 'n', '<C-e>', '<Plug>RDSendLine', {})
          vim.api.nvim_buf_set_keymap(0, 'v', '<C-e>', '<Plug>RSendSelection', {})
        end,
      },
      -- external_term = false, -- Run R in console
      auto_quit = true,
      min_editor_width = 81,
      rconsole_width = 48,
      auto_start = 'always',
      objbr_place = 'console,below',
      objbr_auto_start = true,
      --objbr_w = 20,
      objbr_h = 10,
      save_win_pos = true,
      objbr_opendf = true, -- Show data.frames elements
      objbr_openlist = false, -- Show lists elements
      objbr_allnames = false, -- Show hidden objects
      R_path = '/home/user/.local/bin/',
      R_app = 'dockeR',
      R_cmd = 'dockeR',
      assignment_keymap = '_',
      --pipe_keymap = "",
      pipe_version = 'magrittr',

      disable_cmds = {
        'RClearConsole',
        'RCustomStart',
        'RSPlot',
        'RSaveClose',
      },
    }
    -- Check if the environment variable "R_AUTO_START" exists.
    -- If using fish shell, you could put in your config.fish:
    -- alias r "R_AUTO_START=true nvim"
    require('r').setup(opts)
  end,
  lazy = false,
}

but when I start nvim with an R file I get:
vim :messages

"" is not a directory. Fix the value of R_path in your config.
"dockeR.sh" not found. Fix the value of either R_path or R_app in your config.
ERROR: R exit code = 1! Please, run :RDebugInfo for details.
R.nvim warnings:
  Invalid option `assignment_keymap`.
  R.nvim requires Neovim >= 0.10.4
"~/.config/nvim/lua/kickstart/plugins/R-nvim.lua" 50L, 1610B written
# Config Change Detected. Reloading...

- **changed**: `~/.config/nvim/lua/kickstart/plugins/R-nvim.lua`
1 change; before #287  2 seconds ago
Cannot start R: rnvimserver not started yet.
"~/.local/bin/dockeR.sh" 2L, 131B written
Cannot start R: rnvimserver not started yet.
"~/.config/nvim/lua/kickstart/plugins/R-nvim.lua" 50L, 1607B written
# Config Change Detected. Reloading...

- **changed**: `~/.config/nvim/lua/kickstart/plugins/R-nvim.lua`
Cannot start R: rnvimserver not started yet.

:RDebugInfo

before_rns.R stderr: the input device is not a TTY
Startup warnings:
  Invalid option `assignment_keymap`.
  R.nvim requires Neovim >= 0.10.4
Time:
  before_rns.R (async): 0.157791061
  check health (async): 0.007886688
  global setup: 0.013244426
  unix setup: 0.002415565
before_rns.R stdout: (empty)

I have also made this diagram in order to understand a bit more which functions are called during initialization of R but I think I am missing some parts.

[jalvesaq]

Not fatal errors:

• Neovim version must be >= 10.4. It's better to upgrade Neovim to avoid extra bugs.
• The option assign_map no longer exists. Please, see the example with RInsertAssign at section Custom key bindings of R.nvim documentation.

The most important to fix error is the R_path. Can docker see the directory /home/user/.local/bin/?

Does it help to diagnostic the problem if you put commands such as echo $PATH in your script? From the error message, it seems that you PATH environment variable has an empty string (::).

[ConYel]

Dear @jalvesaq , thank you for the prompt reply!
I will address the are issues one by one later (nvim version etc),
but for now I checked that my bash script with the docker run if I use the
--entrypoint "R $*" is not actually working.
When I change it to --entrypoint "R" it does run (just by running in the terminal dockeR.sh) and I am getting console inside the container with R running.
I have also used echo $PATH in the dockeR.sh script but I don't see something empty :: .
Here is what I get when I run it:

dockeR.sh
/home/user4/.cargo/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/home/user4/.fzf/bin:/usr/local/go/bin:/bin:/home/user4/go/bin:/home/user4/.dotfiles:/opt/nvim-linux64/bin:/home/user4/.local/bin

R version 4.5.0 (2025-04-11) -- "How About a Twenty-Six"
Copyright (C) 2025 The R Foundation for Statistical Computing
Platform: x86_64-pc-linux-gnu

R is free software and comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
You are welcome to redistribute it under certain conditions.
Type 'license()' or 'licence()' for distribution details.

  Natural language support but running in an English locale

R is a collaborative project with many contributors.
Type 'contributors()' for more information and
'citation()' on how to cite R or R packages in publications.

Type 'demo()' for some demos, 'help()' for on-line help, or
'help.start()' for an HTML browser interface to help.
Type 'q()' to quit R.

[jalvesaq]

Just a guess: The usual difficult with Nvim-R or R.nvim is that they install nvimcom automatically when nvimcom is not installed or its version number doesn't match the source version in R.nvim directory. If Docker freezes R in a specific state, it also have to freeze R.nvim to ensure that there will be no mismatch between the version of nvimcom that is installed in R and the version that is in R.nvim source code. Does this make sense?

Unfortunately, I can't help you more because I have no knowledge on how docker works.

[ConYel]

hello @jalvesaq , so I updated nvim and fixed the assign_map issue.
Now without trying anything about docker etc, I get:

"/usr/bin/R" is not a directory. Fix the value of R_path in your config.
"" is not a directory. Fix the value of R_path in your config.
Press ENTER or type command to continue

This is what I have in the config:

      R_path = '/bin/',
      R_app = 'R',
      R_cmd = 'R',

As this is still shown although I don't try to use docker this is an issue of my installation/configuration of nvim.
Except of the $PATH do you have any idea what else could it be?

[jalvesaq]

"/usr/bin/R" is not a directory.

The config option R_path should be the directory where R is installed, not the full path of R (the file). So, it should be /usr/bin if R is there.

If R is installed in the /usr/bin, and if /usr/bin is in your PATH environment variable, you should not need to set the config variable R_path. To know what is the value of your PATH environment variable, do this in Neovim:

:echo $PATH

[ConYel]

Dear @jalvesaq ,
thank you for that, yeah that is true:

If R is installed in the /usr/bin, and if /usr/bin is in your PATH environment variable, you should not need to set the config variable R_path. To know what is the value of your PATH environment variable, do this in Neovim:

so now I need to check again how to make the docker,R script works.

[jalvesaq]

Issue #249 might be similar to this one...