rocker/drd repository overview

⁠drd: Docker R-devel

This repository aims to provide (possibly daily) builds of Docker containers based on the then-current state of the R-devel SVN repository.

It is part of the Rocker⁠ project.

⁠So what about r-devel in Rocker then?

Excellent question, but the answer will get nerdy quickly. Docker containers are composed of layers implemented via AUFS⁠. Each RUN command is one layer. This makes it impossible to reclaim filespace from an earlier layer in a later layer -- so the R-devel container can not easily remove (temp.) files and directories.

For drd we went the other route: The container is built in a single invocation of RUN which permits us to reclaim space for an overall smaller container. But it is sort-of running against the grain of how Docker containers are built, and hence still somewhat experimental.

But if you just want a smaller container with a current R-devel build, this may be the one.