The current installed version of R is version 4.1.3 (2022-08-30) – “Full of Ingredients”. You can start by typing R in the command prompt, either in the terminals or remotely.

We also provide access to RStudio remotely. To obtain access you first have to be connected through VPN.

Then open your web browser and type:

ragnar.econ.illinois.edu:8787

Note that RStudio requires one of the following browser versions (or higher): Firefox 3.5, Safari 4.0, Google Chrome 5.0

Although you can work interactively, it is strongly encouraged to run batch jobs. Running batch jobs have also the desirable feature that allows reproducibility of results. (You should take a look also at Prof. Koenker’s: A Simple Protocol for Simulations in R)

When your folder contains large files or datasets, remotely using RStudio is highly not recommended. Please run batch jobs in R (see below).

Running batch jobs in R

To run R in batch mode you should type:

R CMD BATCH [options] script.R [outfile] &

This command will run the script “script.R”. The ampersand (&) indicates it should run in the background, returning control of the prompt to you.

If you plan to log off from your terminal and login back later to retrieve the output you should attach the nohup command at the beginning. Thus you should type something like:

nohup R CMD BATCH [options] script.R [outfile] &