[R] trying to install plotrix

[Jim Lemon]

On 09/22/2009 08:13 PM, David Epstein wrote:
> Here are the error messages:
>    
>> install.packages('plotrix')
>>      
> Warning in install.packages("plotrix") :
>    argument 'lib' is missing: using '/Users/dbae/Library/R/library'
> --- Please select a CRAN mirror for use in this session ---
> Error in .install.macbinary(pkgs = pkgs, lib = lib, contriburl = contriburl,
> :
>    unable to create temporary directory '/tmp/RtmpSTiTJX/downloaded_packages'
> In addition: Warning message:
> In dir.create(tmpd) :
>    cannot create dir '/tmp/RtmpSTiTJX/downloaded_packages', reason 'No such
> file or directory'
>
> I can't understand this. Surely install.packages can create the necessary
> directories if it needs them. I thought there might be a problem of
> permissions, so
> I tried the following csh commands on my Mac:
>
> Tottie:~/<5>archive% ls -l /tmp
> lrwxr-xr-x   1 root  admin  11 Aug  7  2008 /tmp@ ->  private/tmp
>    
Hi David,
I don't have a Mac, but it looks like the /tmp directory belongs to 
root, and unless you are root when you are installing, you don't have 
write permission in that directory. Do you have this problem when trying 
to install other packages?

Jim