# What software is installed by default when I launch an environment on renkulab?

**URL:** <https://renku.discourse.group/t/what-software-is-installed-by-default-when-i-launch-an-environment-on-renkulab/38>\
**Category:** FAQ\
**Created:** [20 December 2019 15:57 UTC](https://renku.discourse.group/t/what-software-is-installed-by-default-when-i-launch-an-environment-on-renkulab/38 "2019-12-20T15:57:18Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![emmjab](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ed8c4c/32.png) [@emmjab](https://renku.discourse.group/u/emmjab)\
**Post date:** [20 December 2019 15:57 UTC](https://renku.discourse.group/t/what-software-is-installed-by-default-when-i-launch-an-environment-on-renkulab/38/1 "2019-12-20T15:57:18Z")

</div>

When you launch an environment on renkulab (e.g. here: [renkulab.io](http://renkulab.io)) from a project you have “maintainer” access to (e.g. it’s a project you have created, forked, or been granted access to as an individual or a group), you are redirected into an interactive environment (Jupyterlab or RStudio as specified by the configuration) where you can do work and save your changes by `git push`ing.

This environment is controlled by the contents of the Dockerfile in your project. We provide one for you when you create a project on `renkulab` or by command-line with `renku init` with a minimal-ish set of (1) dependencies for launching environments on `renkulab`, (2) `renku` and `renku` dependencies, like `git`, `git-lfs`, `python` and/or `R`, and (3) some useful command-line tools, like `vim`.

Every time you push changes to your project, the GitLab CI/CD pipeline (using the hidden `.gitlab-ci.yml` file) runs and builds an image for that commit from this Dockerfile – those images are stored, and we can use them to launch the interactive environments from `renkulab`.

You can see specifically which software and which versions are installed by default by checking the first line in the `Dockerfile` in your project; it should start with `FROM`, e.g.

```auto
FROM renku/singleuser-r:0.4.3-renku0.8.2

```

This corresponds to a tag of an image stored on docker hub ([https://hub.docker.com/r/renku/singleuser-r/tags](https://hub.docker.com/r/renku/singleuser-r/tags)), built from this repository, where you can read the contents of the `Dockerfile`s in the `/docker` directory at the also-tagged commit ([https://github.com/SwissDataScienceCenter/renku-jupyter](https://github.com/SwissDataScienceCenter/renku-jupyter)).

If you already have a Dockerfile in your project, you’ll want to add the extra dependencies to the commented sections provided in the default Dockerfile provided by `renkulab`/`renku` project creation/initialization. If the build fails, you’ll have to spend a little more time checking for compatibility – e.g. you might be able to put your own dependencies first, and add the renku dependencies using the `renku-jupyter` project as a reference. Feel free to ask questions in this thread.

If you want to add extra software and it’s (python) `pip`-installable, just add your software as a list into `requirements.txt`, constraining the versions. You can then

`pip install -r requirements.txt`

in an active session, and then the next time you launch an interactive environment the container will have the dependencies automatically.