R in Gitpod

To work with R in Gitpod, you will need to properly configure your repository. Here is how to do it.

Installing R

First, you’ll probably want to install R itself. To do this, add a new file to your repository called .gitpod.Dockerfile, and add the following content to it:

FROM gitpod/workspace-full

RUN brew install R

Next, create a Gitpod configuration file called .gitpod.yml (you can also simply run gp init and Gitpod will generate the file), and reference the above Dockerfile in it like so:

image:
  file: .gitpod.Dockerfile

Then commit and push both files to your repository. After that, every new Gitpod workspace created for your project will have R pre-installed.

VSCode Extensions

R Extension

To install the R extension to your repository, add the following to your .gitpod.yml file:

vscode:
  extensions:
    - Ikuyadeu.r@1.2.1:z5vr1v1bfS++U/aHLSXQ6Q==

Here is a minimal example of R running in Gitpod. You can try it here: