[R] making R-1.6.0 on Linux Debian

[Dirk Eddelbuettel]

> Something similar happened a few months ago, when I tried to upgrade to
> R-1.5.1. At the time the solution suggested was to use the
> precompiled binary distribution, available on CRAN.
> Turns out, I do not have root privileges and I cannot touch the files in
> /etc. At the time I gave up, but now I'd really like to "step up" to the
> newer version of R.
> I've looked around but I cannot find any help for installing these
> precompiled  binary, if not by the 'apt-get' program, 
> to which I have no access as simple user of the machine (i.e I cannot add
> lines to the files in /etc like it is explained in the
> /bin/linux/debian/ReadMe file.

Given your situation, you might want to try a fudge or two.  

A .deb archive can be opened with the GNU ar archiver (see "man ar") via 
"ar xv foo.deb" That gives you three files, one which is a tarball with 
the actual "package".  You could simply untar this below you home directory
--- and then set R_HOME accordingly in what would be /usr/bin/R.

That said, it might just be easier if you made sure you have the usual
compilers and tools installed, and built a new R locally into a subdir
of your home directory.  

Dirk

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