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Changelog

Source: NEWS.md

containr 0.2.0

Breaking changes

  • r_mode = "tidystudio" has been removed. Renamed to "verse", matching the Rocker project’s own name for the underlying image (rocker/verse) – "studio" was misleading, since RStudio Server is already present via "tidyverse" two modes earlier, and nothing in the old name hinted at the TeX Live installation that’s the actual differentiator. No deprecation alias; regenerate any Dockerfile built with r_mode = "tidystudio" using r_mode = "verse" instead.

  • The tool argument (a single tool name or NULL for auto-detect) on build_image(), push_image(), and list_images() is replaced by tool_preference, a non-empty character vector tried in order. Defaults to c("podman", "docker"), matching today’s default behavior. A length-1 vector (e.g. tool_preference = "docker") behaves like the old tool = "docker"; a longer vector lets you set a custom auto-detect order, e.g. tool_preference = c("docker", "podman"). tool = NULL had no direct equivalent kept – passing NULL to tool_preference now errors, since the empty/auto-detect case is expressed by supplying more than one candidate instead.

  • push_image()‘s netid argument is renamed to namespace. netid only ever made sense for the default "registry.doit.wisc.edu" registry – the same argument, and the same position in the assembled {registry}/{namespace}/{project}:{tag} path, is a GitHub username or organization for ghcr.io, or a Quay namespace for quay.io. namespace is the term those registries’ own documentation uses for this segment, not a name containr invented. No alias kept; update netid = ... calls to namespace = ....

New features

  • Two new r_mode values on generate_dockerfile(): "shiny_server" (rocker/shiny) for serving Shiny apps, and "rstudio_shiny" (rocker/rstudio with Shiny Server layered on top via Rocker’s own install_shiny_server.sh) for RStudio Server and Shiny Server in the same image. Both require R >= 4.0.0 and error informatively otherwise – /rocker_scripts/ (which the Shiny Server install depends on) only exists in images built from the rocker-versioned2 project, which covers R >= 4.0.0; older tags on the same Docker Hub repositories predate that entirely. EXPOSE now supports more than one port on a single line for rstudio_shiny, which exposes both 8787 and 3838. data_file, code_file, and misc_file are copied to /srv/shiny-server/ for these two modes, matching Shiny Server’s own default app directory – the four existing modes are unaffected, COPY destinations for those stay /home/ exactly as before. expose_port remains an override for "rstudio" only; the two new modes expose fixed port(s) and ignore it, with a warning if supplied.

  • push_image() now works against any OCI-compliant registry, not just the default registry.doit.wisc.edu – tested against ghcr.io and quay.io. Login-check guidance (both the pre-push comments message and the not-logged-in error) is registry-aware: the default registry keeps its existing specific PAT-creation instructions, while any other registry gets generic guidance pointing at that registry’s own documentation instead of DoIT-specific instructions that would be wrong for it.

  • containr now ships a ready-to-use GitHub Actions template at inst/templates/build-and-push.yaml, for building and pushing your own project’s image from CI rather than locally. Calls build_image()/push_image() directly (the same functions you’d run yourself, not a hand-written shell equivalent) on a GitHub-hosted runner, which is natively x86_64 – a direct fix, not a workaround, for QEMU emulation issues building linux/amd64 images locally on Apple Silicon. See README.md’s “Building in CI” section.

Bug fixes

  • Fixed a bug where push_image()’s pre-push login check always failed under Docker regardless of whether the user was actually logged in. <tool> login --get-login <registry> is a Podman-only flag; running it under Docker always exits with a usage error (125), which is why check_login = FALSE was previously necessary as a Docker workaround. Podman keeps its native --get-login check; Docker (and, permissively, any other tool_preference value) now checks ~/.docker/config.json directly for a cached credential, the same approach most CI tooling uses since Docker itself has no query subcommand for this. This is a best-effort local check either way – it confirms a credential exists, not that it’s still valid; an expired token can still fail at push time.

Internal changes

  • The three previously-independent, hand-maintained mappings of r_mode to image name (generate_dockerfile()), Docker Hub repo (.get_r_ver_tags()), and valid-values list (.r_ver_exists()) are now a single shared registry (.r_mode_registry). No user-facing effect beyond the tidystudio removal and the two new modes above.

  • tool_preference is not validated against a fixed list of tool names – any string on the system’s PATH that responds to <tool> info is accepted. This is intentional: tool_preference should not need a companion validation update every time a new container tool gains support (Apptainer support is planned for a future release). Structural validation still applies – tool_preference must be a non-empty character vector with no missing values. Error messages for an unrecognized tool that’s installed but not responding fall back to generic guidance rather than Docker- or Podman-specific instructions that would be wrong for a different tool; docker and podman keep their existing specific guidance.

  • Removed a redundant internal check: build_image(), push_image(), and list_images() each called .check_tool_responsive() immediately after .resolve_tool(), which already guarantees the resolved tool is responsive. No user-facing behavior change.

  • Added integration tests (CONTAINR_INTEGRATION_TESTS=true) for build_image() and push_image(), backfilling the two that were previously only covered at the argument-validation and command- construction layers. push_image()’s integration test additionally requires CONTAINR_TEST_NAMESPACE and CONTAINR_TEST_PROJECT to be set, so it never pushes a test image to an unintended destination. These now run automatically in CI on every push/PR touching the relevant files, via a new container-integration-tests.yaml GitHub Actions workflow.

containr 0.1.3.9000

New functions

  • build_image() builds a container image from a Dockerfile using either podman or docker. Auto-detects which tool is available, preferring podman. New platform argument defaults to "linux/amd64" for HPC/HTC cluster compatibility. When the target platform differs from the host architecture (e.g. building linux/amd64 on Apple Silicon), the function automatically uses docker buildx build with --load for Docker, or passes --platform directly for Podman. A warning is emitted for cross-platform builds to alert the user about potential QEMU emulation issues. Supports dry_run = TRUE to preview the build command without executing it. verbose and comments follow the same contract as generate_dockerfile().

  • push_image() tags a locally built container image with a full registry path and pushes it to a container registry in a single call, handling both the podman tag and podman push steps internally. Arguments: image_id, netid, project, tag (defaults to "latest"), registry (defaults to "registry.doit.wisc.edu"). Supports login verification, dry_run = TRUE, and guided output via verbose and comments.

  • list_images() returns a data frame of container images in the local image store, as reported by podman image ls or docker image ls. Useful for finding the image ID to pass to push_image() after building an image with build_image(). Prints the data frame to the console and returns it invisibly.

  • Two new internal helpers shared by build_image(), push_image(), and list_images(): .resolve_tool() auto-detects podman or docker on the PATH, and .check_tool_responsive() verifies the daemon is running before attempting any build, push, or list operation.

Changes to generate_dockerfile()

  • Breaking change: COPY instructions generated by data_file, code_file, and misc_file now preserve the local directory structure inside the container under /home/. Previously, all files were flattened into /home/data/ or /home/ regardless of their source path. For example, data_file = "data-raw/sample.csv" now produces COPY data-raw/sample.csv /home/data-raw/sample.csv instead of COPY data-raw/sample.csv /home/data/sample.csv. This means R scripts inside the container can use the same relative paths they use locally.

  • Breaking change: COPY source paths are now always written as relative to the build context (the current working directory). Previously, absolute paths could leak into the Dockerfile if .validate_file_arg() normalized them, causing podman build to fail with “no such file or directory.”

  • generate_dockerfile() refactored: r_mode validated before file and network operations, dplyr dependency removed, expose_port now warns when r_mode is not "rstudio", build loop simplified, invisible(NULL) added to return value.

  • generate_dockerfile() now requires an renv.lock file in the current working directory. Errors informatively if none is found, with instructions to run renv::snapshot().

  • New auto_syslibs argument (default TRUE) reads renv.lock, queries the Posit Package Manager sysreqs database via remotes::system_requirements(), and automatically includes the system libraries required by all packages in the lock file. Warns and continues without auto-detection if the lookup fails.

  • New install_syslibs argument (default NULL) accepts a character vector of additional apt package names to install on top of the auto-detected set, e.g. install_syslibs = c("libuv1-dev", "libwebp-dev").

  • curl is now always installed as a baseline system package regardless of auto_syslibs or install_syslibs. It is required by renv for package downloads inside the container.

  • Breaking change: the hardcoded system library list (cmake, libcurl4-openssl-dev, libssl-dev, etc.) has been removed. Libraries are now determined entirely by auto_syslibs and install_syslibs. The old install_syslibs = TRUE argument no longer works – pass a character vector of library names instead.

  • generate_dockerfile() now calls renv::status() defensively and warns if the lock file appears to be out of sync with the project library.

  • A success message now reports the path where the Dockerfile was written when verbose = TRUE.

Tests and documentation

  • Added tests/testthat/test-generate-dockerfile-content.R covering Dockerfile output content for all arguments.
  • Updated tests to expect directory-preserving COPY destinations instead of the old flattened /home/data/ pattern.
  • Added lifecycle and Codecov badges.
  • Updated hex sticker and favicon.
  • Added tests for build_image() platform parameter: invalid platform validation, --platform flag inclusion/omission, docker buildx vs docker build selection, --load flag for cross-arch Docker builds, cross-compilation warning, and same-architecture no-warning behavior.
  • .validate_file_arg() now returns paths relative to the working directory instead of absolute paths. Files outside the build context (including files on a different drive on Windows) produce an informative error. This fixes cross-drive build failures on Windows CI where fs::path_rel() could not compute a relative path

Dependency changes

  • httr2 added to Imports. Used by .get_r_ver_tags() for Docker Hub API calls.
  • httr removed from Imports. All HTTP calls now use httr2.
  • remotes added to Imports. Used by .fetch_sysreqs() to query system library requirements.
  • jsonlite added to Imports. Used by .read_renv_packages() to parse renv.lock.
  • dplyr removed from Imports. The r_mode lookup in generate_dockerfile() now uses a named vector instead of dplyr::case_when().

Internal changes

containr 0.1.3

CRAN release: 2026-04-26

Changes

Bug fixes

containr 0.1.2

CRAN release: 2026-04-07

  • Added inst/CITATION with DOI for proper academic citation via citation("containr")
  • Added inst/WORDLIST for spell check consistency
  • Added Language: en-US to DESCRIPTION
  • Improved documentation and README
  • Added rhub v2 GitHub Actions workflow for cross-platform checks

containr 0.1.1

CRAN release: 2025-09-24

containr 0.1.0

  • Initial CRAN submission.