make it possible to run rstudio server in a similar way to Jupyter Classic and JupyterLab

[williamstein]

• RStudio does have a discussion about serving with a base url here - https://support.rstudio.com/hc/en-us/articles/200552326-Running-RStudio-Server-with-a-Proxy
  That is absolutely critical to this working in cocalc, and Binder stuff won't help.

• When we do this, legally (trademark) we have to probably build a modified version of RStudio that replaces the word "Rstudio" everywhere with some other word, e.g., "RCondo"? "RShed"? "RServer"?

[williamstein]

A person suggested these names to me:

RAttic"? "RBitrary"? "RBuro"? "RCalc"? "RCalco"? "RCane"? "RDagio"? "RDeco"? "RDesk"? "RDesko"? "RDustio"? "RKaik"? "RLab"? "RLabo"? "RManiac"? "RMore"? "RPegio"? "RRival"? "RScenic"? "RStounding"? "RSudo"? "RTistic"? "RTuro"? "RVivo"?

[williamstein]

Some thoughts. We need to:

1. Git clone the source from https://github.com/rstudio/rstudio
2. Replace all instances of "RStudio" by a different name: RStudy. The word "study" is a synonym for "studio" (they are both types of rooms), but it has a more "academic oriented" connotation, so it's a good name. We should automate this.
3. Build from source
4. Figure out how to deal with any basepath and other proxying issues.

[haraldschilly]

If the server is installed, this script runs it. What's missing is to tie this up with these "named servers".

#!/usr/bin/env bash

if [[ ! -x /usr/lib/rstudio-server/bin/rserver ]]; then
    echo "rstudio-server is not installed";
    exit 1;
fi

PORT=${COCALC_RSERVER_PORT:-6006}

TMP=${TMP:-/tmp}/rserver
DATA="$HOME/.config/rserver"
mkdir -p $TMP/rserver
mkdir -p $DATA

cat <<EOF > $TMP/db.conf
provider=sqlite
directory=$DATA/db
EOF

exec env DISABLE_AUTH=true /usr/lib/rstudio-server/bin/rserver \
    --server-daemonize=0 \
    --auth-none=1 \
    --auth-encrypt-password=0 \
    --server-user=$USER \
    --database-config-file=$TMP/db.conf \
    --server-data-dir=$DATA \
    --server-working-dir=$HOME \
    --www-port=$PORT \
    --www-root-path=/$COCALC_PROJECT_ID/server/$PORT/ \
    --server-pid-file=$TMP/rserver.pid

[williamstein]

Nice! Some comments:

• on cocalc-docker (say), if two users try to do this at once, probably one's /tmp/rserver/db.conf will conflict with the other one? It would better to include the username in the tmp path, or even better put it in $HOME (since you never clean it up).
• does your script actually work? With rstudio for compute servers I had to resort to a horrible hack involving a user called "rstudio-server" that gets created when installing R Studio Server. Basically how rstudio server actually behaved I think was different than the docs suggest (i.e., bugs) at least when I install it on Ubuntu. There's a lot of discussion about problems like this on stackoverflow. Maybe installing some other way (e.g., build from source?) would get around this.

[haraldschilly]

does your script actually work?

I can use it like other servers, make a plot, run code, etc. Not sure what else you ask?

What's not working is support for more than one session. I suspect this only comes with the pro version.

[williamstein]

I can use it like other servers, make a plot, run code, etc. Not sure what else you ask?

It doesn't even start for me without modifying the rstudio-server account that is created when installing the software from upstream. However, you don't specify at all how you install rstudio-server. My point is that this script could work for some ways of installing rstudio, and won't work for other ways.

Yes, multiuser is basically the key feature of rstudio server pro...

[haraldschilly]

you don't specify at all how you install rstudio-server

I did step 3 on the page https://posit.co/download/rstudio-server/ when selecting "Debian/Ubuntu" at the top and then in the dropdown, "Debian 12 / Ubuntu 22"