install_greta_deps: Install Python dependencies for greta

In greta: Simple and 'Scalable' Statistical Modelling in R

Install Python dependencies for greta

Description

This is a helper function to install specified versions of Python dependencies needed for greta. By default, greta version >= 0.6.0 now uses reticulate's managed (uv) Python environment to automatically identify dependencies. You can change over to this new approach with greta_set_python(), which is now what we recommend. This has changed from where we would previously use install_greta_deps().

Usage

install_greta_deps(
  deps = greta_deps_spec(),
  timeout = 5,
  restart = c("ask", "force", "no"),
  ...
)

reinstall_greta_deps(
  deps = greta_deps_spec(),
  timeout = 5,
  restart = c("ask", "force", "no"),
  ask = interactive()
)

Arguments

deps	object created with greta_deps_spec() where you specify python, TensorFlow (TF), and TensorFlow Probability (TFP) versions. By default these are TF 2.15.1, TFP 0.23.0, and Python 3.11. greta_deps_spec() checks that the TF version is one greta supports; compatible TFP and Python versions are resolved at install time. See ?greta_deps_spec() for more information, and the data object greta_deps_tf_tfp for known-good combinations. If you have stored a preference with greta_set_deps(), it is used when deps is not supplied.
timeout	maximum time in minutes until the installation for each installation component times out and exits. Default is 5 minutes per installation component.
restart	character. Restart R after installation? Default is "ask". Other options are, "force", and "no". Using "force" will will force a restart after installation. Using "no" will not restart. Note that this only restarts R during interactive sessions, and only in RStudio.
...	Optional arguments, reserved for future expansion.
ask	Logical; for reinstall_greta_deps(), whether to ask for confirmation before removing the existing greta conda environment. Defaults to interactive().

Details

This function, install_greta_deps(), is an alternative installation workflow. The default versions of the python modules are: TensorFlow 2.15.1, TensorFlow Probability 0.23.0, and Python 3.11. These Python modules will be installed into a conda environment named "greta-env-tf2".

It can be useful to identify installation notes, warnings, or errors that arise during install. You can do this by accessing the logfile with open_greta_install_log(), which opens your logfile in your default web browser. The logfile of the installation process is written to a user directory, by default to tools::R_user_dir("greta"), and is named: "greta-installation-logfile.html".

You can set the logfile location with greta_set_install_logfile(). E.g., greta_set_install_logfile('path/to/logfile.html'). You can also specify this with an environment variable, GRETA_INSTALLATION_LOG, e.g., Sys.setenv('GRETA_INSTALLATION_LOG'='path/to/logfile.html').

By default, if using RStudio, it will ask you if you want to restart the R session. If the session is not interactive, or is not in RStudio, it will not restart. You can also override this with restart = TRUE.

Value

Invisibly returns NULL; called for its side effect of installing greta's Python dependencies into a conda environment.

Note

This will automatically install Miniconda (a minimal version of the Anaconda scientific software management system), create a 'conda' environment for greta named 'greta-env-tf2' with required python and python package versions, and forcibly switch over to using that conda environment.

We now recommend using the new default method for installation, which uses uv (via the reticulate package) to install TensorFlow and TensorFlow Probability on first use. To make greta use the "greta-env-tf2" conda environment created here instead, use greta_set_python("conda") (or set the RETICULATE_PYTHON environment variable to its Python before loading greta). See the "Installing Dependencies" vignette and greta_set_python().

If you don't want to use conda or the "greta-env-tf2" conda environment, you can install versions that you like, e.g., using reticulate::py_install(). If you want to see which versions of TF, TFP, and Python work with each other (at least according to information from tensorflows website), see the data greta_deps_tf_tfp, which is provided with greta. Managing your own installation is not always straightforward, so proceed with caution.

Examples

## Not run: 
install_greta_deps()

## End(Not run)
## Not run: 
# to help troubleshoot your greta installation, this can help resolve some
# issues with installing greta dependencies
reinstall_greta_deps()

## End(Not run)

greta documentation built on July 20, 2026, 5:09 p.m.