[R] installation of R on Linux

[Kevin E. Thorpe]

Daniel Nordlund wrote:
>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: Prof Brian Ripley [mailto:ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk]
>>Sent: Friday, January 27, 2006 11:49 PM
>>To: Daniel Nordlund
>>Cc: r-help at stat.math.ethz.ch
>>Subject: Re: [R] installation of R on Linux
>>
>>On Fri, 27 Jan 2006, Daniel Nordlund wrote:
>>
>>
>>>R-users,
>>>
>>>I am new user of Linux (have been using Win XP Pro) and wanted to
>>>install R.  Since I am just beginning to learn Linux I was wondering,
>>>where in the directory structure do users of Linux usually install R?
>>>Most of the instructions I have read simply say to untar the tarball
>>>where you want to install the program.  Any suggestions would be welcome
>>>as to an appropriate place.  I know I could get an rpm, but wanted to
>>>use this as a learning process for a variety of skills.  Currently
>>>working with SuSE 9.1
>>
>>There is a definitive set of instructions, in the file INSTALL in
>>the tarball and at
>>
>>https://svn.r-project.org/R/trunk/INSTALL
>>
>>Unpacking and installing are separate operations.  There is more
>>information in the R-admin manual (which you already have in a Windows
>>version of R, and is also in the tarball).
>>
>>What most of us do is to untar in any convenient place (I use ~/R), use
>>configure, make, and then use 'make install' to >install< R.  This
>>installs in /usr/local in the conventional subdirectories (and
>>conventionally needs su to access).  Having installed, you can wipe out
>>the unpacked version of the tarball.
>>
>>So, in my example
>>
>>cd ~/R
>>tar zxf R-2.2.1.tar.gz
>>cd R-2.2.1
>>configure
>>make
>>make info pdf
>>su
>>make install install-info install-pdf
>>[leave su shell]
>>cd ..
>>rm -rf R-2.2.1
>>
>>Rehash and start R.
>>
>>--
>>Brian D. Ripley,                  ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk
>>Professor of Applied Statistics,  http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/
>>University of Oxford,             Tel:  +44 1865 272861 (self)
>>1 South Parks Road,                     +44 1865 272866 (PA)
>>Oxford OX1 3TG, UK                Fax:  +44 1865 272595
> 
> 
> Prof. Ripley,
> 
> Thanks for the example and the pointers to various locations for documentation.  As a new user of Linux (with minimal experience in using Unix-like systems), I am somewhat uncomfortable putting programs just anywhere since there seem to be default locations for where many system programs reside.  Your concrete example is very helpful.
> 
> Thanks again,
> 
> Daniel Nordlund
> Bothell, WA  USA
> 

One additional point.  I have often found it preferable to
run configure and make as a regular user and only run
'make install' as root.


-- 
Kevin E. Thorpe
Biostatistician/Trialist, Knowledge Translation Program
Assistant Professor, Department of Public Health Sciences
Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto
email: kevin.thorpe at utoronto.ca  Tel: 416.946.8081  Fax: 416.946.3297