Building WASM Binary from GitHub Project with Dependencies

[jgf5013]

Hi all!! I'm trying to create a WASM binary from a forked version of my friend's escape2024 package so that I can use it in my js/ts project here. At first (commit here). The R-Universe build was successful (here) 💪, but I don't see the WASM binary. Logs from the "Build R-release for WebAssembly" are below.

Run /entrypoint.sh
/entrypoint.sh
shell: sh -e {0}
env:
UNIVERSE_NAME: jgf5013
MY_UNIVERSE: https://jgf5013.r-universe.dev
GH_APP_ID: 87942
DISPLAY: :6
LANG: en_US.UTF-8
UserNM: nm --quiet
GITHUB_PAT: ***
SOURCEPKG: escape2024_0.0.1.tar.gz
CRAN_VERSION:
NEED_CARGO:
Running fake X server on :6
List installed R packages
R version 4.4.2 (2024-10-31) -- "Pile of Leaves"
...
During startup - Warning messages:
1: Setting LC_CTYPE failed, using "C"
2: Setting LC_COLLATE failed, using "C"
3: Setting LC_TIME failed, using "C"
4: Setting LC_MESSAGES failed, using "C"
rwasm::build('./escape2024_0.0.1.tar.gz')
i Scanning dependencies in '/tmp/Rtmp2UKqFv/file20c78406014/escape2024_0.0.1....
v Scanning dependencies in '/tmp/Rtmp2UKqFv/file20c78406014/escape2024_0.0.1....
The package (0 B) is cached.
i No downloads are needed
6: Setting LC_MEASUREMENT failed, using "C"
* creating tarball
packaged installation of 'escape2024' as 'escape2024_0.0.1_R_x86_64-pc-linux-gnu.tar.gz'
* DONE (escape2024)
Appending virtual filesystem metadata for: escape2024_0.0.1.tgz

After some (probably unhelpful) chats with Gemini I modified the project to include custom /tic.R and /tools/build_wasm.R files. The build is now failing with this error:

ERROR: dependencies 'deSolve', 'ggplot2', 'rootSolve', 'tidyr' are not available for package 'escape2024'
* removing '/tmp/RtmppXMdVs/filea2585059c/escape2024'
Error in wasm_build(pkg, tarball_path, out_dir, compress) :

I'm very new to wasm and have never worked with R before. Can someone help me through the steps and which file/repo I should be pointing to in my js code once I get a successful build? Thanks a bunch in advance!!

EDIT: My main brain is back to the original and appears to be building the wasm binary okay but when I try to use the binary in my js project I'm getting this.

Error in install.packages("escape2024", repos = c("https://jgf5013.r-universe.dev", "https://cloud.r-project.org"))
This version of R is not set up to install source packages

[jeroen]

I think your first attempt was good. I'm not sure where Gemini got thsi but tic has nothing to do with it so remove that. To install

install.packages("escape2024", repos = c("https://jgf5013.r-universe.dev", "https://repo.r-wasm.org"))

You can easily test it in this WebUI: https://webr.r-wasm.org/latest/

[jgf5013]

Thanks! Really helpful to know I'm headed down the right path. I'm still getting This version of R is not set up to install source packages when I run the js app locally though. I'm running it from a react app using vite to run locally with a dev container. In case it matters the dev container image is mcr.microsoft.com/devcontainers/javascript-node:18. Any idea why I'm getting that error?

Also (not sure if it matters) I'm getting these warning messages when I try to use the package from https://webr.r-wasm.org/latest/:

> library("escape2024")
Warning messages:
1: In install(dep, repos, info, lib, quiet, mount) :
  Requested package deSolve not found in webR binary repo.
2: In install(dep, repos, info, lib, quiet, mount) :
  Requested package rootSolve not found in webR binary repo.

Thanks again for your help!

[jeroen]

I'm still getting This version of R is not set up to install source packages when I run the js app locally though.

This happens when you install dependencies from https://cloud.r-project.org (which does not have wasm binaries).

Also (not sure if it matters) I'm getting these warning messages when I try to use the package from https://webr.r-wasm.org/latest/:

Those you can probably ignore. This happens because some of the dependencies of your package do not support WASM. But it seems the package can still be loaded.

[jgf5013]

Oh, I see - looks like I was importing the package wrong. I was importing it from R code like this:

install.packages("escape2024", repos = c("https://jgf5013.r-universe.dev", "https://repo.r-wasm.org"))
library(escape2024)

But since I'm running a wasm project, it seems I need to instead do this:

const r = new WebR({ baseUrl: 'https://webr.r-wasm.org/latest/' });
await r.init();
await r.installPackages(['escape2024', 'jsonlite'], {
  repos: ['https://jgf5013.r-universe.dev', 'https://repo.r-wasm.org'],
  quiet: false,
});

Since I'm now using the correct repo (https://cloud.r-project.org, like you mentioned) I'm getting past that error.
Hitting this error instead now

packageNotFoundError in loadNamespace(x): there is no package called ‘deSolve’>

...so it seems like that will be a runtime issue, but I can try to find an alternative for that package. Please consider this resolved. Thanks a bunch!!

[jgf5013]

Hm maybe this is still related (please feel free to tell me to open a new question if you feel it's not) - seems like both deSolve and rootSolve are available on r-universe

• https://r-forge.r-universe.dev/api/packages/deSolve
• https://karlines.r-universe.dev/api/packages/rootSolve

I tried including them in my js code like this but I'm getting an error Error in library(deSolve) : there is no package called ‘deSolve’

  ...
  const [webR, setWebR] = useState<WebRType|null>(null);

  useEffect(() => {
    const setupR = async () => {
      const r = new WebR({ baseUrl: 'https://webr.r-wasm.org/latest/' });
      await r.init();
      await r.installPackages(['deSolve', 'rootSolve', 'escape2024', 'jsonlite'], {
      repos: ['https://jgf5013.r-universe.dev', 'https://repo.r-wasm.org'],
      quiet: false,
    });
    console.log("Packages installed successfully");
    setWebR(r);
    };
    setupR();
  }, []);

  useEffect(() => {
    if (!webR) return;

    const compute = async () => {
      webR.writeConsole(rCode); // <-- error here: `Error in library(deSolve) : there is no package called ‘deSolve’`
      for await (const item of readWebREvents(webR) ?? []) {
        simpleDataSignal.value = item;
      }
    };

    compute();
  }, [webR]);

# rCode
library(deSolve)
library(rootSolve)
library(escape2024)

print("Calling model_reference...")

result = tryCatch({
  data <- model_reference(
    transmission_rate = 0.25,
    infectiousness_rate = 0.1,
    recovery_rate = 0.2,
    time_end = 2,
    population_size = 1,
    seed_infected = 1E-3,
    increment = 1
  )
  print(data)
  flush.console()
  return(data)
}, warning = function(w) {
  print("Warning...")
  print(w)
}, error = function(e) {
  print("Error...")
  print(e)
}, finally = {
  print("All done!")
  flush.console()
})

[jeroen]

Hmm perhaps https://repo.r-wasm.org is missing some. Can you try adding those repos you mentioned:

repos: ['https://jgf5013.r-universe.dev', 'https://r-forge.r-universe.dev', 'https://karlines.r-universe.dev, 'https://repo.r-wasm.org'],

Or alternatively you could try getting all dependencies from our cran universe instead of the official r-wasm.org

repos: ['https://jgf5013.r-universe.dev', 'https://cran.r-universe.dev'],

[jgf5013]

Doesn't seem to work. Getting this error

Error: package or namespace load failed for ‘deSolve’ in dyn.load(file, DLLpath = DLLpath, ...):
 unable to load shared object '/usr/lib/R/library/deSolve/libs/deSolve.so':
  Could not load dynamic lib: /usr/lib/R/library/deSolve/libs/deSolve.so
Error: bad export type for 'dls001_'

If I run the repl at https://webr.r-wasm.org/latest/, regardless of what I put in the for repo, I see the same thing

[jeroen]

Yeah that is probably why it is not on https://repo.r-wasm.org... seems like the package is doing something that cannot work under wasm. Probably something in the Fortran code. I think the emscripten port of flang is still WIP, so it will probably resolve itself at some point.

[jgf5013]

Gotcha. Thanks. I'll try to find an alternative package under https://repo.r-wasm.org/ that I can swap in.