Hi, Wolfgang. One way to think of docker is as a very efficient, self-contained virtual machine. The operative term is "self-contained". The docker containers resemble real machines from the inside and the outside. These machines can expose ports and can mount file systems, but something like .Call would need to use a network protocol, basically. So, I think the direct answer to your question is "no".
That said, there is no reason that a docker container containing all complex system dependencies for the Bioc build system, for example, couldn't be created with a minimal R installation. Such a system could then become the basis for further installations, perhaps even package-specific ones (though those would need to include all R package dependencies, also). R would need to run INSIDE the container, though, to get the benefits of the installed complex dependencies. I imagine Dan or others might have other thoughts to contribute. Sean On Tue, Apr 14, 2015 at 7:23 AM, Wolfgang Huber <whu...@embl.de> wrote: > Is it possible to ship individual R packages (that e.g. contain complex, > tricky to compile C/C++ libraries or other system resources) as Docker > containers (or analogous) so that they would still run under a “normal”, > system-installed R. Or, is it possible to provide a Docker container that > contains such complex system dependencies such that a normal R package can > access it e.g. via .Call ? > > (This question exposes my significant ignorance on the topic, I’m still > asking it for the potential benefit of a potential answer.) > > Wolfgang > > _______________________________________________ > Bioc-devel@r-project.org mailing list > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/bioc-devel > [[alternative HTML version deleted]] _______________________________________________ Bioc-devel@r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/bioc-devel
