A R socket server is listening for command send by clients to a TCP port. This server is implemented in Tcl/Tk, using the powerful 'socket' command. Since it runs in the separate tcltk event loop, it is not blocking R, and it runs in the background; the user can still enter commands at the R prompt while one or several R socket servers are running and even, possibly, processing socket clients requests.
startSocketServer(port = 8888, server.name = "Rserver", procfun = processSocket,
secure = FALSE, local = !secure)
stopSocketServer(port = 8888)the TCP port of the R socket server.
the internal name of this server.
the function to use to process client's commands. By default,
it is processSocket().
do we start a secure (TLS) server? (not implemented yet)
if TRUE, accept only connections from local clients, i.e.,
from clients with IP address 127.0.0.1. Set by default if the server is not
secure.
One can write a different procfun function than the default one for
special servers. That function must accept one argument (a string with the
command send by the client) and it must return a character string containing
the result of the computation.