Install a R package permanently in Google Colab

Question

I am using the -idefix- R package and I do not want to install it everytime I log into Google Colab. Is there any way of installing it permanently? Will it also be installed for other people if I share the notebook.

Thank you :)

Answer 1

Like what you could do in a local computer, copy the source local R library to the target location. See some instruction in this blog ( atusy.net )

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Here are two CoLab notebooks to reproduce the import and export R library.

• CoLab Notebook export local library

• CoLab Notebook import local library

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Here are some minimal snippets in this I/O process.

Open a CoLab notebook in Python,

# activate R magic
%load_ext rpy2.ipython

Make the notebook available for R.

%%R
install.packages('tidymodels')
tar("library.tar.gz", "/usr/local/lib/R/site-library")

Install the package tidymodels, and zip your library with installed packages.

from google.colab import drive
drive.mount('/content/drive')

Connect your google drive and make a copy for use in the future.

%cp library.tar.gz drive/MyDrive/src/

drive/MyDrive/src/ is the path I choose, you can use another.

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Next, you use this library in another or new notebook.

from google.colab import drive
drive.mount('/content/drive')

Connect your Google Drive.

%cp drive/MyDrive/src/library.tar.gz .

Copy it in your working directory.

!tar xf library.tar.gz

Extract the installed packages from the zipped file.

.libPaths('usr/local/lib/R/site-library/')

update the Library path and put it at the top ranking.

library(tidymodels)

Check, this package is of reuse

Answer 2

As far as I understand it, each virtual machine is recycled after you close the browser window or the session is longer than 12 hours. There is no possibility to install packages in a way that you can access them without installing them again (to the best of my knowledge).