[R] Windows R_LIBS_USER confusion under R-3.0.1

[Uwe Ligges]

On 12.06.2013 16:35, Paul Johnson wrote:
> I would appreciate ideas about MS Windows install issues. I'm at our stats
> summer camp and have been looking at a lot of Windows R installs and there
> are some wrinkles about R_LIBS_USER.
>
> On a clean Win7 or Win8 system, with R-3.0.1, we see the user library for
> packages defaulting to  $HOME/R/win-library.
>
> I think that's awesome, the way it should be. Yea! But it does not appear
> that way on all systems, and I think it is because of lingering
> after-effects of previous R installs.
>
> In previous versions of R, R_LIBS_USER defaulted to
> $HOME/AppData/Roaming/... That was not so great because it was (default)
> hidden to the students and they were disoriented about how something that
> does not exist (or show) could hold packages. Aside from teaching them how
> to configure the file manager, we could navigate that.
>
> The problem is that with R-3.0.1, sometimes we are seeing the user package
> installs going into $HOME/AppData/Roaming/....
>
> In the user account, there is no $HOME/.Rprofile or $HOME/.Renviron.
>
> I hate to tell non-expert users that they ought to go fishing in the
> Windows registry, but I'm starting to suspect that is what they ought to
> do.  What do you think?


There is nothing in the registry, but maybe some startup file in the 
current working directory? Some declaration of environment variables 
somewhere else?

Best,
Uwe Ligges


>
> PJ
>