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Bake Parallel Jobs in Background with bakerrr

Source: vignettes/simple_example.Rmd
simple_example.Rmd

Overview

The bakerrr S7 class enables efficient background and parallel job orchestration in R, making it easy to apply a function to multiple sets of arguments using configurable daemons. This vignette demonstrates usage with sample inputs and inspects job status and results.

Job Architecture

  • Daemons: Background R processes that execute jobs in parallel
  • Arguments List: Each element contains named arguments for the target function
  • Results Collection: Automatic aggregation with error capture and reporting

Setup

Define a simple function and generate a list of argument sets, introducing a mix of numeric and non-numeric (error-producing) cases.

fun <- function(x, y) {
  Sys.sleep(2)
  x + y
}

# Note how each list item is a set of arguments for the function above.
args_list <- list(
  list(x = ceiling(rnorm(1) * 10), y = ceiling(rnorm(1) * 10)),
  list(x = "p", y = ceiling(rnorm(1) * 10)),  # Intentional type error
  list(x = ceiling(rnorm(1) * 10), y = ceiling(rnorm(1) * 10)),
  # Add more sets as needed
  list(x = ceiling(rnorm(1) * 10), y = ceiling(rnorm(1) * 10)),
  list(x = ceiling(rnorm(1) * 10), y = ceiling(rnorm(1) * 10)),
  list(x = ceiling(rnorm(1) * 10), y = ceiling(rnorm(1) * 10)),
  list(x = ceiling(rnorm(1) * 10), y = ceiling(rnorm(1) * 10)),
  list(x = ceiling(rnorm(1) * 10), y = ceiling(rnorm(1) * 10)),
  list(x = ceiling(rnorm(1) * 10), y = ceiling(rnorm(1) * 10)),
  list(x = ceiling(rnorm(1) * 10), y = ceiling(rnorm(1) * 10))
)

Creating and Running Jobs

Instantiate a bakerrr object and process jobs in parallel with configurable daemon count.

new_stirr <- bakerrr::bakerrr(
  fun,
  args_list,
  n_daemons = 4
) |>
  bakerrr::run_jobs(wait_for_results = TRUE)

Inspecting Status and Results

Print job summary and view results. Note that jobs triggering errors report the error messages as designed.

print(new_stirr)
new_stirr@results
#> [[1]]
#> [1] -11
#> 
#> [[2]]
#> Error in purrr::in_parallel: non-numeric argument to binary operator
#> 
#> [[3]]
#> [1] 7
#> 
#> [[4]]
#> [1] -6
#> 
#> [[5]]
#> [1] -4
#> 
#> [[6]]
#> [1] -7
#> 
#> [[7]]
#> [1] 28
#> 
#> [[8]]
#> [1] -10
#> 
#> [[9]]
#> [1] -23
#> 
#> [[10]]
#> [1] 6

Notes

  • Use n_daemons to control parallel worker count based on available cores.
  • Error handling is built in; results will include error messages for failed jobs.
  • You can pass additional background job options via bg_args.
  • For more details, see function-level documentation or explore extending with additional job handlers and reporting tools.