New version of the OpenSAFELY R image (v3)

We are pleased to announce the availability of a new version of the R image, which we call r:v3. This includes R 4.6.1 and an updated suite of libraries. This has been in a beta testing period for a while, but is now generally available.

Upgrading

To upgrade, you should just be able to change the relevant run: commands for your actions in your project.yaml file to use r:v3 rather than r:v1 or r:v2.

Most existing R code should work with the v3 image unchanged, however, there may be some breaking changes, and you may need to fix your code to work with the newer version or R or some of the libraries.

Additional packages in v3

r:v3 includes the following new packages:

• fastglm, an alternative to the existing parglm package
• SEQTaRget, an alternative to the existing TrialEmulation package
• Packages for profiling and memory efficiecy:
  • bench
  • profvis
  • qs2
  • RhpcBLASctl

As always, if you have any further questions, or any problems with the v3 image, you can reach out to tech-support.