Code Ocean offers many base environments with different languages pre-installed. You can also use the environment & configuration options to install multiple languages in one compute capsule. Available package managers will suffice for many common languages; less common languages will likely require a postInstall script.

Which environment should I start with?

If you:

  • are not using a pre-installed language, use a base Ubuntu (18.04 or 16.04) environment;

  • need proprietary software, such as MATLAB or Stata, start from an environment with proprietary language;

  • use a GPU, select an environment with GPU access (these will be explicitly labeled as such, or will reference CUDA or a deep learning framework);

  • need general flexibility, start from an image with Conda these will have Python as well).

Installing a language using package managers:

The following are all available as apt-get packages:

  • build-essential for the C/C++ toolchain (gcc/g++, make, etc.);

  • r-base for R (note: r-base-dev will help you install R packages, and we also recommend adding a MRAN snapshot for R 3.4.4, which is what is available via apt-get as of this writing);

  • octave  for Octave;

  • python-pip  for Python 2 and the pip installer;

  • python3-pip  for Python 3 and the pip3 installer;

  • perl for Perl (add cpanm if needed);

  • luajit for Lua (add luarocks if needed);

  • default-jdk for Java;

  • gfortran for Fortran. 

Once you add R or python, the commands Rscript or python will become available, respectively.

 Installing langauges through Conda

If your base image has a conda installer, or if you add it via postInstall script, you can add languages and language-specific packages via supplemental conda channels.

  • python is available by default (you can add python  as a package, however, and specify the version (e.g. 2.7.15  to install a different python version);

  •  julia and lua are available through conda-forge;

  •  r is available from channel r.

Installing languages via the postInstall script:

What if I need proprietary software that isn't currently supported?

Contact us at support@codeocean.com and we will be happy to look into it.

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