[ESS] Choosing between multiple *remote* R versions

[Lasko, Thomas A]

Thanks for the answer, Vitalie. It would be great to have a variable like that. In the meantime I'll use path switching.

On Jun 8, 2012, at 2:43 PM, Vitalie Spinu wrote:

> 
> Hi Tom, 
> 
> It looks that ESS cannot do that. Current ESS process selection is a
> bit rigid. I think we can follow slime here
> (http://common-lisp.net/project/slime/doc/html/Multiple-Lisps.html)
> 
> We can have a variable ess-inferior-commands such that the user can do
> something like:
> 
> (setq ess-inferior-commands
>      ((R-win ("C:/progs/R/R-term.exe" "--q"))
>        R-dev ("~/bin/R-dev")
>        myR_remote   ("/path/to/remote/R")))
> 
> When ESS starts it can define R-win, R-dev and myR_remote interactive
> commands (callable with M-x).
> 
> This should also work fine for remote access with tramp. 
> 
>>> "Lasko, Thomas A" <tom.lasko at vanderbilt.edu>
>>> on Wed, 6 Jun 2012 08:40:10 -0500 wrote:
> 
>> Hi folks,
>> I am trying to figure out how to set things up so I can choose between multiple
>> versions of R running on a remote server that I access using emacs/ess/tramp. I
>> know how to do this for different local R versions, but the same strategy hasn't
>> worked for different remote versions. I've scoured the web, various manuals, and
>> searched these archives all to no avail. But I have to believe there's a way to
>> do it.
> 
>> I use emacs tramp mode to edit R files on my remote CentOS machine, and to start
>> R 2.15.0 processes on that machine with M-x R, which just works (amazingly
>> easy). For a specific purpose, I now also have Revolution R 2.13 installed on
>> that machine (under a symlink named Revo64), and I can run it fine from an ssh
>> command line, or I can change the path environment variable so that the Revo R
>> version always starts with M-x R. But I need to be able to selectively run each
>> of these versions via tramp, and I'm having trouble figuring out how to set that
>> up.
> 
> For time being you can try to write a little function to reset
> environment variable interactively.
> 
>> I know that at least for local versions, there's a variable ess-r-versions where
>> I can list the prefix of each R version potentially found in my path, such as
>> R-2, R64, R-devel, (and for me now, Revo), etc, and they will be available to
>> ESS as processes that can be run under M-x R64, etc. I can get this working for
>> local versions of R, but not for remote versions. I'm guessing that ESS does a
>> search for the versions at startup, long before the remote connection is made,
>> so they are not detected as possible choices.
> 
>> Does anybody know how to set things up so that I can choose between multiple R
>> versions on a remote machine when I am using emacs/ESS/tramp mode? Apologies if
>> this is spelled out in documentation or previously answered somewhere - I did
>> try to find it.
> 
> 
> Best, 
> Vitalie.
>