[R] Linux configuration (Ubuntu)

[Prof Brian Ripley]

On Wed, 20 Sep 2006, Uwe Ligges wrote:

> Poizot Emmanuel wrote:

>> R under linux (Ubuntu or other distributions) is not exactly as it is
>> under windows.
>> Under linux, you have to use a shell (or a terminal) to launch R and use
>> it.
>> The main difference between windows and linux version of R, is that R
>> under linux, does not provide the graphical facilities to load and
>> install libraries. To do so under linux, you have to download the tar.gz
>           ^^^^^^^^^ -> packages
>
>
>> version of the library from CRAN and use as a root user the command R
>                  ^^^^^^^ -> package
>
>> CMD INSTALL thelibrarytoinstall.tar.gz. You have to install, of course,
>                  ^^^^^^^ -> package
>> before, the needed compilers gcc and/or fortran, depend the library you
>                                                   package <-  ^^^^^^^
>
> Yes, please, it is called a *package*. And you can easily install
> packages from R by typing:
>
> install.packages("thepackagetoinstall")
>         ^^^^^^^^     ^^^^^^^^
>
> Please see ?install.packages.
>                     ^^^^^^^^

One more quick hint to ex-Windows users:  the Rgui menu item runs

install.packages(NULL, dependencies = TRUE)

and that will bring up a graphical menu to select packages even on Linux 
(provided tcltk is working).

-- 
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