Start R in a virtual python enviroment

[olivuntu]

Hi all,

First,many many thanks for R.nvim, a super great tool !

Some R packages, spatial ones in particular (terra, sf), depend on libraries that may be (somehow) easier to manage in python virtual environments using conda. Well, it's not always easy when other soft depend on the same libraries, but installed system-wise (e.g. gimp with libproj). One workaround is to tune environment variables, such as LD_LIBRARY_PATH, when a virtual environment is activated. It works well when R is started in such environment (package loading executes without problem), but not when R is started from Neovim with \rf.

How would you do to either manage environment variables such as LD_LIBRARY_PATH from within the plugin, before R session starts (tuning .Rprofile for instance does not work, it is read after session start), or probably better, activate a virtual environment before R starts ? Using reticulate package in an open session does not help.

Many thanks for hints and help,

Regards

[PMassicotte]

I think with hook it should be doable. What do you think @jalvesaq ?

[richardsc]

I am maybe not fully understanding the issue, but in my experience starting R from within R.nvim will load whatever R executable it finds first on the path. In cases where I want an R environment and packages managed by conda, I simply create a conda environment that includes r-base, install the R packages I need (using e.g. install.packages()), and then activate that environment with e.g. conda activate renvironment at the command line before opening neovim.

[olivuntu]

Thanks for the replies.
@richardsc, r-base was installed from the CRAN repo, not using conda. The current version on conda-forge is a bit behind that from CRAN, also I'm not sure all packages would be available on conda-forge ? But I may try if it simplifies package management in the end !
For now, when the virtual environment is activated in a terminal before startin nvim (with LD_LIBRARY_PATH defined accordingly), and R started just after with R.nvim, libraries are still unseen in R session (I'm using the external tmux terminal).
@PMassicotte, I'll give it a try, after learning about hooks !

[PMassicotte]

@olivuntu let us know how it works. Maybe we can document it better.

[jalvesaq]

The after_config hook runs only once, and you could set the variable there:

    after_config = function() 
        vim.env.EXAMPLE_VAR = "This is an example"
    end,

[olivuntu]

Thanks for the feedback.
In fact, Nvim correctly reads environment variables, : echo $LD_LIBRARY_PATH sends correct value, so it seems nvim is aware of the conda virtual env.
But \rf would not work then, I get an error ("Terminal emulator" exited with status 1, I'm using tmux), but it works fine in the base environment (no activation before launching nvim). Need to investigate ...

[jalvesaq]

@olivuntu, please, see issue #401
Is it related with this discussion?