RStudio crashes when calling reticulate::py_config()

[ioanavicGIT]

I know there are several other issues with the same topic but what i found was not clear to me what versions of RStudio, Python, reticulate or other packages were used.
So I will describe my issue and I would kindly ask for a tutorial or reproduceable step by step guide to setup in RStudio an RPackage project that uses renv and successfully integrates python via reticulate.

Here is what i did:

1. Setup the RPackage project

• open R
• run:
  usethis::create_package('[[prj path]]')
• a new project is created and opened in a new RSession
• run:
  renv::init()
renv::activate()
• the R session restarts and the package has the structure updated
• installed devtools
  install.packages("devtools")

2. Install reticulate

• first tried
  usethis::use_package("reticulate")
  But this installs the latest version of reticulate. After some reading for debugging different issues, have tried different version of reticulate, different versions of Rcpp etc.. So i ended up installing older versions of Rcpp and reticulate (exactly in this order as some articles suggested)

detach("package:reticulate", unload = TRUE)
remove.packages("reticulate")
remove.packages("Rcpp")
install.packages("Rcpp_1.0.9.tar.gz", repos=NULL, type="source")
install.packages("reticulate_1.26.tar.gz", repos=NULL, type="source")

• at this point the package successfully builds

3. Set up Python integration

renv::use_python()
renv::status()
renv::snapshot()

• these commands created a python structure under renv folder and updated renv.lock and created requirements.txt
• at this point the package successfully builds

The crash

• I use devtools to load my package:
  devtools::load_all()
• I successfully run
  reticulate::py_discover_config()
  Outcome
  python: …/myproj/renv/python/virtualenvs/renv-python-3.11/Scripts/python.exe
  libpython: C:/Program Files/Python/Python311/python311.dll
  pythonhome: …/myproj/renv/python/virtualenvs/renv-python-3.11
  version: 3.11.9 (tags/v3.11.9:de54cf5, Apr 2 2024, 10:12:12) [MSC v.1938 64 bit (AMD64)]
  Architecture: 64bit
  numpy: …/myproj/renv/python/virtualenvs/renv-python-3.11/Lib/site-packages/numpy
  numpy_version: 2.1.2
• running reticulate::py_version() returns nothing
• running reticulate::py_available() returns false
• running reticulate::py_config() crashes RStudio

I am using the latest version of RStudio: 2024.09.0 Build 375, but in the process I have tried different versions of RStudio with the same result.

Thank you in advance for your support!

[t-kalinowski]

This question might be better suited for renv. @kevinushey, is it okay to move it?

[kevinushey]

Good idea, I've transferred the issue.