rapt

R + apt: A Python-free alternative to bspm for r2u binary installs.

What it does

Makes install.packages("dplyr") install r-cran-dplyr via apt instead of compiling from source. Fast binary installs with no Python in the stack.

Architecture

R session  →  Unix socket  →  raptd (root)  →  apt install r-cran-*

A minimal C daemon (raptd) listens on /run/raptd.sock and executes apt commands on behalf of unprivileged users.

Installation and Usage

From the apt repository

Prebuilt packages are published to https://cornball-ai.github.io/rapt/. The repository is unsigned, so clients have to opt in with Trusted: yes. Set Suites to your release codename, noble for 24.04:

sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/rapt.sources > /dev/null <<'EOF'
Types: deb
URIs: https://cornball-ai.github.io/rapt
Suites: noble
Components: main
Trusted: yes
Enabled: yes
EOF

sudo apt update
sudo apt install rapt

Packages are built per release, so a noble client is never offered a build compiled against a different one. Only the suites r2u itself serves are worth enabling, since rapt has nothing to bridge to otherwise.

With .deb (recommended)

Install build dependencies as needed

sudo apt install debhelper r-base-dev

Clone repo and cd:

git clone https://github.com/cornball-ai/rapt.git
cd rapt/pkg

Build .deb and install:

# Build
dpkg-buildpackage -us -uc -b -tc

# Install
sudo apt install ../rapt_0.1.0-1_amd64.deb

The .deb installs everything: daemon, systemd units, R package, and enables rapt system-wide via /etc/R/profile.d/rapt.R.

After installing the .deb, rapt is enabled automatically. Just use R normally:

install.packages("dplyr")
#> Installing via apt: dplyr

With the R package only (no daemon, no systemd)

Clone repo and install:

git clone https://github.com/cornball-ai/rapt.git
cd rapt/r-pkg/
R CMD INSTALL .

Or without cloning:

remotes::install_github("cornball-ai/rapt", subdir = "r-pkg")

Then in R:

rapt::enable()
install.packages("dplyr")  # now goes through apt via sudo

To make it permanent, add to ~/.Rprofile:

if (requireNamespace("rapt", quietly = TRUE)) rapt::enable()

Passwordless sudo for apt

Without the daemon, rapt falls back to sudo apt. To avoid password prompts, add a sudoers rule limited to R packages:

# /etc/sudoers.d/rapt
%users ALL=(root) NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/apt install -y r-cran-*
%users ALL=(root) NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/apt remove -y r-cran-*
%users ALL=(root) NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/apt install -y r-bioc-*
%users ALL=(root) NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/apt remove -y r-bioc-*

Manual control

library(rapt)

# Check status
manager()
#> $daemon_available
#> [1] TRUE
#> $socket_path
#> [1] "/run/raptd.sock"
#> $enabled
#> [1] TRUE

# Direct system package management
install_sys("ggplot2")
remove_sys("ggplot2")

# List available system packages
head(available_sys())
#> [1] "a]4" "abc" "abcrf" "abd" "abess" "abn"

# Disable/enable hook
disable()
install.packages("dplyr")  # Now uses CRAN
enable()
install.packages("dplyr")  # Back to apt

Configuration

Options (set in ~/.Rprofile, /etc/R/Rprofile.site, or a drop-in in /etc/R/profile.d/):

# Allow sudo fallback when daemon unavailable (default: FALSE in non-interactive)
options(rapt.sudo = TRUE)

# Custom socket path (default: /run/raptd.sock)
options(rapt.socket = "/run/raptd.sock")

Requirements

• Ubuntu with r2u configured
• R >= 4.0
• systemd (optional — for the daemon; without it, falls back to sudo/root)

How it compares to bspm

	bspm	rapt
Backend	Python D-Bus → PackageKit	C daemon → apt
Dependencies	Python, dbus-python, PackageKit	libc
Socket	D-Bus system bus	Unix domain socket
Lines of code	~1500	~500

License

MIT