I was trying to test an install of R in SQL Server 2016 and when running a script I received this error: Fatal error: cannot create ‘R_TempDir’

Following the instructions here, I enabled external scripts, restarted the sql server service, and then tried to run the following test script:

This is when the fatal error occurred.  As the error suggests, R is having some issues creating a temporary directory.  After some internet searching and trial and error I got past the issue.

Enable  8dot3 File Names

R configuration uses the 8dot3 file name convention, also known as “short names”.  To enable this on windows 10, run the following command in CMD (command prompt):

For more options and information look here: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/121007

Give access to the working directory to R

Locate and open “rlauncher.config” file in a text editor.  This file will be under the “<sqlserver_instance>\binn” directory.  Take a look at the location of WORKING_DIRECTORY.  This should have a “short name” file path.  The path should be something like “<sqlserver_instance>\EXTENS~1”, and “\EXTENS~1” is equivalent to “\ExtensibilityData”.  We need to give access to R to this folder. I did this by changing the permissions to full control to everyone.  You may want to be more restrictive here, but in my case this did not matter.

• Right click folder > Properties > Security tab > Advanced > Add
• Select a principal (I entered “Everyone”
• Tick “Full control” under basic permissions and click “OK”
• Tick “Replace all child object and permissions entries with inheritable permissions entries from this object” and click “OK”

Now if you rerun the script above you should get a result of “hello, 1”.