Load jsonlite and rlang from custom lib.loc so session watcher can start from renv project

[adamaltmejd]

Right now when running R from a renv project where the packages are not installed the session watcher does not work but throws:

VSCode R Session Watcher requires jsonlite, rlang. Please install manually in order to use VSCode-R.

I can of course install the packages in the project but don't want my projects to include unnecessary dependencies. Would it be possible to set a custom library location for requireNamespace() somehow?

[renkun-ken]

This could be done in https://github.com/Ikuyadeu/vscode-R/blob/master/R/.Rprofile by sourcing project .Rprorfile created by renv after sourcing session watcher init.R.

Would you like to try editing your project .Rprofile by putting the following code before renv init:

if (!exists(".vsc")) {
  source(file.path(
    Sys.getenv(if (.Platform$OS.type == "windows") "USERPROFILE" else "HOME"),
    ".vscode-R", "init.R")
  )
}

[adamaltmejd]

Thanks! That would work, but now I'm sourcing init.R from ~/.Rprofile which seems better. Sourcing init.R from within the project has the same effect as including the packages in renv: I introduce an unneeded dependency on VSCode.

Is there maybe a way to get R to source ~/.Rprofile before project .Rprofile?

[renkun-ken]

The "R: Create R terminal" is trying to mimic the R's native behavior that if a project .Rprofile is present, then it will not source ~/.Rprofile.

It works for you then I think we could provide a vscode setting so that user could customize the order of execution in https://github.com/Ikuyadeu/vscode-R/blob/master/R/.Rprofile:

1. optionally source user profile
2. source project profile
3. source session watcher script

[adamaltmejd]

Ahh right I set RENV_CONFIG_USER_PROFILE=TRUE in ~/.Renviron to ensure my user Rprofile is still sourced.

Problem with "R: Create R terminal" is that I'm using tmux on a server with SSH Remote and need to start R from within tmux.

[renkun-ken]

Problem with "R: Create R terminal" is that I'm using tmux on a server with SSH Remote and need to start R from within tmux.

Yes, if you are using tmux to preserve your R session, then you need to customize your profile to source session watcher on your own, which actually gives you more freedom of control of the order and behavior.

[adamaltmejd]

Exactly, thats what I'm trying to do :). Trying to do it without bogging down my research project with personal coding preferences that the others working in the project are not interested in.

Was thinking that the easiest way would be to somehow get the init.R script to use a custom library instead of renv, but the alternative would be to get ~/.Rprofile to be sourced through renv before project .Rprofile which would require changed to that package instead.

[danielbasso]

When using renv, after loading the project custom environment for the first time I have to install the languageserver and whatever dependency it needs. These won't be included in the renv.lock file because it scans from calls inside your code; so, it's a bit annoying, of course, but I don't count as "introducing unneeded dependency", since when you share the code and others perform an renv::restore(), these packages won't be installed.

[adamaltmejd]

Indeed thats what I'm doing right now. Works, but a bit frustrating when opening new projects etc.

[adamaltmejd]

Think I found a solution: Install languageserver etc in your main library, then set the env variable R_LIBS_USER in .bashrc or similar and run lsp in vanilla: "r.lsp.args": ["--vanilla"]. Seems to work!