[R] set new path for package installation, because In normalizePath(path.expand(path), winslash, mustWork) :

[Tim Richter-Heitmann]

Hi there,

i am no way an expert user, so please bear with me, as i am basically 
looking for a step.by.step tutorial to change pathes in R. This is my 
current problem:
We are running R 3.0.2 with R-Studio on a Win7 environment. In our case, 
the default working directory Users/Documents/R on the local drive is 
not available. Instead, the path is redirected to a different network 
drive (as all our profile data is stored on that H: drive). This used to 
work fine at some point, but the other day, some major changes were made 
to our server (which i have nothing to do with), and suddenly, a few 
users having this problem:

Whenever i am starting R, i am welcomed with:
"Warning message:
In normalizePath(path.expand(path), winslash, mustWork) :
path[1]="//x/home$/tim/Documents/R/win-library/3.0": Access is denied"

And i am not allowed to install packages or manipulate objects in my 
workspace. However, whenever i am running R with admin rights, i may 
install packages, but they will be stored in a directory in 
profiles/admin/appdata/local.

Curiously, when i perform .libPaths(), i get:

[1] "\\\\x/home$/tim/Documents/R/win-library/3.0"
[2] "C:/Program Files/R/R-3.0.2/library"


I can use the packages then with the normal user account though. Still, 
i am not able to write into my workspace with normal user rights, and 
for us, it is impossible to grant every user with admin rights to run 
R-Studio.
 From what i have found on google, there are workarounds for R, like 
starting R from batch files, but i do not know if they're fine when i 
want to start R from an GUI like R-Studio, too. I also have found advice 
to change the path to the working and library location directory in the 
Rprofile. I do find a rprofile.site in ../etc , but there is no path 
given to the rprofile, which i think is needed. There was another tip to 
manipulate R_LIBS_USER. But, tbh, there is a limit to my technical skill.
Do you have any idea to fix that issue? Or is anyone please willing to 
give me a little guidance?

Thank you very much!


-- 
Tim Richter-Heitmann (M.Sc.)
PhD Candidate



International Max-Planck Research School for Marine Microbiology
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