[R] Using R and JuliaCall is not reliable without assigning R environment variables before starting R

[Robert Dorazio]

Suppose the file "sourceCode.R" contains an R script that calls a Julia
function using julia_call(), which is defined in the R package JuliaCall.

If R is started in a Linux terminal using the command "R", then the R
command  "source(sourceCode.R)" may produce a segmentation fault (core
dumped).

In contrast, if R is started in a Linux terminal using the following code:

R_HOME=/usr/lib/R
export R_HOME
R_SHARE_DIR=/usr/share/R/share
export R_SHARE_DIR
R_INCLUDE_DIR=/usr/share/R/include
export R_INCLUDE_DIR
R_DOC_DIR=/usr/share/R/doc
export R_DOC_DIR
exec /usr/lib/R/bin/exec/R

then the R command "source(sourceCode.R)" executes without errors.

Evidently, explicitly setting these R-related environment variables to
their correct system paths BEFORE running R is needed to ensure that both R
and any external libraries it calls (like JuliaCall) have the precise,
necessary information to locate all R components.

This correct path information allows the underlying inter-language
connection to be established cleanly, preventing the memory access error.

Unfortunately, running R from the Linux terminal is not nearly as
convenient as running R within Emacs (or  another editor), where R code can
be edited and run more easily.  Does anyone have an alternative solution to
this problem?

FYI: I am using Julia 1.12.1, R 4.5.1, and Ubuntu 24.04.

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