install_blimp: Install the Blimp computational engine

In rblimp: Integration of 'Blimp' Software into R

Install the Blimp computational engine

Description

Downloads and installs Blimp into a user-writable directory managed by rblimp. This is an alternative to installing Blimp via the system installer from https://www.appliedmissingdata.com/blimp.

Usage

install_blimp(dir = NULL, force = FALSE, quiet = FALSE, linux_variant = NULL)

Arguments

dir	Install directory. Defaults to a hidden, user-writable per-OS location (⁠~/.blimp/⁠ on macOS and Linux, ⁠%LOCALAPPDATA%/Blimp/⁠ on Windows), overridable via the R_BLIMP_HOME environment variable.
force	Logical; overwrite an existing managed install, or proceed even when a system installation of Blimp is detected. Default FALSE. When both managed and system installations exist, the managed install takes precedence in detect_blimp.
quiet	Logical; suppress progress messages. Default FALSE.
linux_variant	Optional character; "ubuntu" or "rhel8". When NULL (default), the variant is auto-detected from ⁠/etc/os-release⁠. Ignored on macOS and Windows.

Details

The install directory location can be overridden globally via the R_BLIMP_HOME environment variable.

Set R_BLIMP_PREVENT_INSTALL=true to disable install_blimp (intended for locked-down environments).

Non-interactive R sessions require force = TRUE.

Value

Path to the installed blimp executable, invisibly.

Privacy

Calling install_blimp() contacts updates.blimpstats.com over HTTPS to fetch the Blimp engine. Information may be collected as described in the privacy policy.

See privacy policy: https://www.blimpstats.com/privacy.

See Also

uninstall_blimp, update_blimp

Examples

## Not run: 
# Install Blimp to the default managed location
install_blimp()

# Install to a custom directory
install_blimp(dir = "~/blimp-managed")

# Force install on a Linux RHEL 8 system without auto-detection
install_blimp(linux_variant = "rhel8")

## End(Not run)

rblimp documentation built on May 18, 2026, 9:07 a.m.