These instructions describe how to install a different version of R (r-base) on a cluster. You can check the default r-base version that each Databricks Runtime version is installed with in the System environment section of each Databricks Runtime release note (AWS | Azure | GCP).

List available r-base-core versions

To list the versions of r-base-core that can be installed and the version format:

1. Paste the following shell command in a notebook cell:

   %sh
   
   add-apt-repository 'deb [arch=amd64,i386] https://cran.rstudio.com/bin/linux/ubuntu xenial//'
   apt-get -y update
   apt-cache madison r-base-core

2. Run the cell.

For example, you can install version 3.3.3 by specifying 3.3.3-1xenial0.

Install a specific R version

1. Paste the following shell command into a notebook cell. Set <r-version> to the R version to be installed. Set <init-script-path> to a file path under /dbfswhere this init script will be saved.

   %sh
   
   R_VERSION='<r-version>'
   INIT_SCRIPT_PATH='<init-script-path>'
   
   mkdir -p $(dirname $INIT_SCRIPT_PATH)
   
   echo "set -e
   
   # Add the repository containing another version of R
   add-apt-repository 'deb [arch=amd64,i386] https://cran.rstudio.com/bin/linux/ubuntu xenial//'
   apt-get -y update
   
   # Uninstall current R version
   apt-get remove -y r-base-core
   
   # Install another version of R
   apt-get install -y r-base-core=$R_VERSION
   
   # Must install Rserve to use Databricks notebook
   R -e \"install.packages('Rserve', repos='https://rforge.net/', type = 'source')\"
   R -e \"install.packages('hwriterPlus', repos='https://mran.revolutionanalytics.com/snapshot/2017-02-26')\"" > $INIT_SCRIPT_PATH

2. Run the notebook cell to save the init script to a file on DBFS.
3. Configure a cluster with a cluster-scoped init script (AWS | Azure | GCP). When specifying the init script path in the cluster creation UI, modify the format of the init script path to change /dbfs to dbfs:/. For example, if <init-script-path> is set to /dbfs/examplepath/change-r-base.sh, then in the cluster creation UI specify the init script path dbfs:/examplepath/change-r-base.sh.
4. After the cluster starts up, verify that the desired R version is installed by running %r R.version in a notebook cell.