cannot install devtools in r shiny docker - r

Question

I'm trying to build a docker image for my shiny app. Below is my dockerfile. When I build my images, everything else seems fine, except I got error message Error in library(devtools) : there is no package called ‘devtools’ Execution halted. I also tried devtools::install_github('nik01010/dashboardthemes') with no success. I have non clue why? What could go wrong? Do anyone know what is wrong with my dockerfile? Thanks a lot.
# Install R version 3.6
FROM r-base:3.6.0
# Install Ubuntu packages
RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y \
sudo \
gdebi-core \
pandoc \
pandoc-citeproc \
libcurl4-gnutls-dev \
libcairo2-dev/unstable \
libxt-dev \
libssl-dev
# Download and install ShinyServer (latest version)
RUN wget --no-verbose https://s3.amazonaws.com/rstudio-shiny-server-os-build/ubuntu-12.04/x86_64/VERSION -O "version.txt" && \
VERSION=$(cat version.txt) && \
wget --no-verbose "https://s3.amazonaws.com/rstudio-shiny-server-os-build/ubuntu-12.04/x86_64/shiny-server-$VERSION-amd64.deb" -O ss-latest.deb && \
gdebi -n ss-latest.deb && \
rm -f version.txt ss-latest.deb
# Install R packages that are required
RUN R -e "install.packages(c('devtools', 'shiny','shinythemes','shinydashboard','shinyWidgets','shinyjs', 'tidyverse', 'dplyr', 'ggplot2','rlang','DT','lubridate', 'plotly', 'leaflet', 'mapview', 'tigris', 'rgdal', 'visNetwork', 'wordcloud2', 'arules'), repos='http://cran.rstudio.com/')"
RUN R -e "library(devtools)"
RUN R -e "install_github('nik01010/dashboardthemes')"
# Copy configuration files into the Docker image
COPY shiny-server.conf /etc/shiny-server/shiny-server.conf
COPY /app /srv/shiny-server/
# Make the ShinyApp available at port 80
EXPOSE 80
# Copy further configuration files into the Docker image
COPY shiny-server.sh /usr/bin/shiny-server.sh
CMD ["/usr/bin/shiny-server.sh"]

Answer 1

There are a few approaches you might try.
Easiest:
Use remotes::install_github instead of devtools. remotes has many fewer dependencies if you don't need the other functionality.
Second Easiest:
Use rocker/tidyverse image from Docker Hub instead of baseR image.
docker pull rocker/tidyverse
Change line 2:
FROM rocker/verse
Hardest:
Otherwise, you will need to figure out which dependencies you need to install inside your docker image before you can install devtools. It will likely be obvious if you try to install it interactively.
Make sure the container is running
Get the container name using docker ps
Start a shell with docker exec -it <container name> /bin/bash
Start R and try to install devtools interactively