The Rockerverse: Packages and Applications for Containerization with R
Abstract
The Rocker Project provides widely used Docker images for R across different application scenarios. This article surveys downstream projects that build upon the Rocker Project images and presents the current state of R packages for managing Docker images and controlling containers. These use cases cover diverse topics such as package development, reproducible research, collaborative work, cloud-based data processing, and production deployment of services. The variety of applications demonstrates the power of the Rocker Project specifically and containerisation in general. Across the diverse ways to use containers, we identified common themes: reproducible environments, scalability and efficiency, and portability across clouds. We conclude that the current growth and diversification of use cases is likely to continue its positive impact, but see the need for consolidating the Rockerverse ecosystem of packages, developing common practices for applications, and exploring alternative containerisation software.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2001.10641,
title = {The Rockerverse: Packages and Applications for Containerization with R},
author = {Daniel Nüst and Dirk Eddelbuettel and Dom Bennett and Robrecht Cannoodt and Dav Clark and Gergely Daroczi and Mark Edmondson and Colin Fay and Ellis Hughes and Lars Kjeldgaard and Sean Lopp and Ben Marwick and Heather Nolis and Jacqueline Nolis and Hong Ooi and Karthik Ram and Noam Ross and Lori Shepherd and Péter Sólymos and Tyson Lee Swetnam and Nitesh Turaga and Charlotte Van Petegem and Jason Williams and Craig Willis and Nan Xiao},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2001.10641},
year = {2020}
}
Comments
Source code for article available at https://github.com/nuest/rockerverse-paper/ Updated version includes some new paragraphs and corrections throughout the text; full diff available at https://github.com/nuest/rockerverse-paper/compare/preprint.v2...preprint.v3