sdbuildR uses Julia for ensemble simulations and working with units in models. This is supported by the R package JuliaConnectoR. This guide will help you install Julia and configure it to work with sdbuildR.
Step 1: Install Julia
Download and install Julia from https://julialang.org/install/. If you already have Julia installed, go to the next step.
We recommend using juliaup, Julia’s official version manager, which makes it easy to install and switch between Julia versions. Some useful commands are listed below.
# See installed versions and current default
juliaup status
# Install latest stable version
juliaup add release
# Install specific version
juliaup add 1.11.3
# Set default version
juliaup default 1.11.3
# Update juliaup and all Julia versions
juliaup update
# Remove a version
juliaup remove 1.10.0
# List all available versions
juliaup listAlternatively, you can download a standalone Julia installer from https://julialang.org/downloads/.
Step 2: Check if Julia is accessible
After installing Julia, check if JuliaConnectoR can find it:
juliaSetupOk()
#> [1] TRUEIf the Julia installation can be found, try to start a Julia session:
startJuliaServer()
#> Starting Julia ...
#> Connecting to Julia TCP server at localhost:11980 ...
stopJulia()If this runs successfully, you can skip to step 6. If this throws an error, go to the next step.
Step 3: Find your Julia installation path
You need to locate the bin directory of your Julia installation (not the Julia executable itself).
From Julia
If you can start Julia from your terminal/command prompt, run this inside Julia:
This returns something like:
- Windows:
"C:\\Users\\YourName\\.julia\\juliaup\\julia-1.11.3+0.x64.w64.mingw32\\bin\\julia.exe" - macOS:
"/Applications/Julia-1.11.app/Contents/Resources/julia/bin/julia" - Linux:
"/usr/bin/julia"
Important: You need the bin directory containing the
executable (remove julia.exe or julia from the
end).
Step 4: Add Julia to your PATH permanently
To make Julia accessible to R across all sessions, add it to your
.Renviron file.
Open .Renviron
Run this in R to open your .Renviron file:
# Install usethis if needed
if (!require("usethis")) install.packages("usethis")
# Open .Renviron for editing
usethis::edit_r_environ()This will open .Renviron in your text editor. If the
file doesn’t exist, it will be created.
Add Julia to PATH
Add one of the following lines to .Renviron, replacing
the path with your actual Julia bin directory:
Windows (use forward slashes for the path, semicolon as separator):
PATH="C:/Users/YourName/.julia/juliaup/julia-1.11.3+0.x64.w64.mingw32/bin;${PATH}"macOS (use : as separator):
PATH="/Applications/Julia-1.11.app/Contents/Resources/julia/bin:${PATH}"Linux (use : as separator):
PATH="/usr/bin:${PATH}"Replace the path before the separator with your actual Julia bin
directory. Be sure to keep ${PATH} at the end, such that
the Julia path is appended to the PATH.
If using juliaup (recommended), you can point to the juliaup directory instead of a specific version:
Windows:
PATH="C:/Users/YourName/.julia/juliaup;${PATH}"macOS/Linux:
PATH="~/.julia/juliaup/bin:${PATH}"This allows juliaup to manage which Julia version is used.
Step 5: Verify the setup
After restarting R, verify that Julia is accessible:
juliaSetupOk()
#> [1] TRUECheck whether a Julia session can be started from R:
startJuliaServer()
#> Starting Julia ...
#> Connecting to Julia TCP server at localhost:11980 ...
stopJulia()Step 6: Using Julia with sdbuildR
After installing Julia, you need to set up the Julia environment for sdbuildR:
Note that this may take 10-25 minutes the first time as Julia downloads and compiles packages.
Step 7: Verify Julia environment setup
Check whether the Julia environment setup was successful:
julia_status()
#> Julia environment is ready to be activated.
#> $julia_found
#> [1] TRUE
#>
#> $julia_version
#> [1] "1.12.1"
#>
#> $env_exists
#> [1] TRUE
#>
#> $env_instantiated
#> [1] TRUE
#>
#> $status
#> [1] "ready"To start a Julia session and activate the Julia environment for sdbuildR:
use_julia()
#> Starting Julia ...
#> Connecting to Julia TCP server at localhost:11980 ...
#> Setting up Julia environment for sdbuildR...This needs to be done in each new R session.
To close the Julia session:
use_julia(stop = TRUE)
#> Julia session closed.Troubleshooting
Julia not found
JuliaConnectoR cannot find Julia, i.e. this evaluates to
FALSE:
juliaSetupOk()
#> [1] TRUEJuliaConnectoR tries to find Julia in the following order:
Sys.getenv("JULIA_BINDIR") # "" if not found
Sys.which("julia") # "" if not found
# On Mac/Linux:
julia_path <- file.path(Sys.getenv("HOME"), ".juliaup", "bin", "julia")
file.exists(julia_path) # FALSE if not foundTo add Julia to your PATH, follow step 4. If this still doesn’t work:
- Double-check the path you added to
.Renviron - Make sure you’re pointing to the
bindirectory, not the Julia executable - Make sure you’re using the file path separator appropriate for your
operating system, which you can find with
.Platform$file.sep. - Verify you saved
.Renvironand restarted R - View your current PATH
Check whether your Julia bin directory is in your PATH:
# View PATH split by separator for readability
paths <- strsplit(Sys.getenv("PATH"), .Platform$path.sep)[[1]]
paths[grepl("julia", paths)]Removing the Julia environment for sdbuildR
install_julia_env(remove = TRUE)Advanced: Using multiple Julia versions
If you have multiple Julia versions installed, the first one found in your PATH will be used by default.
Switch versions with juliaup
If using juliaup, you can change the default version without
modifying .Renviron:
Switch versions temporarily
sdbuildR uses your default Julia version. To use a different version:
Sys.setenv(JULIA_BINDIR = "C:/Users/YourName/.julia/juliaup/julia-1.11.3+0.x64.w64.mingw32/bin")Note: This only affects the current R session and is not permanent.