[R] Unix-like permissions to allow a user to update recommen

[Patrick Connolly]

On Mon, 18-Jun-2007 at 11:53AM +0100, Ted Harding wrote:

|> On 18-Jun-07 10:11:43, Patrick Connolly wrote:
|> > I installed R from the tar.gz file (as root) in a directory under
|> > /usr/local.  The recommended packages are installed in a library in
|> > that directory whereas additional packages I install in a directory
|> > under the /home directory as a user.
|> > 
|> > Updating the additional packages is very easy with update.packages()
|> > as a non-root user, but the recommended packages cannot be done so
|> > readily because of file permissions.
|> > 
|> > My question is how do I set the permissions or ownerships in the
|> > /usr/local/R-2.5.0 directory so that everything necessary can be
|> > writable by a user?  Should I make a group for R users (total of one
|> > member) or is it simpler than that?
|> 
|> Since you have root access, do you need to segregate the additional
|> packages to a particular user?

It's handy to not have to reload packages that don't change between
versions of the basic installation.

|> 
|> Though I don't run R as root for general use, I always install/update
|> by running R CMD as root. This makes all of R ("recommended" and also
|> any extras) available system-wide, and no pemission problems arise.
|> 
|> This of course does not stop you from setting up a special .Rprofile
|> for each user, since this by definition lives in the user's home
|> directory.
|> 
|> Does this help? Or are there issues you haven't mentioned which make
|> such an approach not feasible?

I don't exactly have issues.  It's not a huge problem I'm dealing
with.  It's simple enough for me to use update.packages() as a user
which will download the appropriate packages.  Though they won't be
installed, they are all in the one place in the /tmp/ directory from
where I can install them as root.  I just thought there must be a more
elegant way to set permissions so that users could write to the
subdirectories under /usr/local/R-2.xxx/.  So much of the installation
process of R and its packages is so elegant, I'd like to retain some
of that elegance.

best

-- 
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   ___    Patrick Connolly   
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