[R] Can I safely use an installed R folder in a portable manner?

[Marc Capavanni]

Hi there,

I'm currently using R on Windows as part of a piece of software and when
I'm providing it to users I have an application that runs the R
installation file with an INF file containing the following settings as to
not disrupt existing installs of R on their system.

[Setup]
Lang=en
Dir=.\R_Install\
Group=R
NoIcons=1
SetupType=user32
Components=main,i386
Tasks=
[R]
MDISDI=MDI
HelpStyle=HTML

The aim using this INF file is that the install should not touch the
registry, or add any icons/shortcuts anywhere.

This R install does not need to do much aside from provide the R
executables (particularly rscript.exe) for use, so I don't need it to be on
the PATH, for it to handle R files being double clicked by the user, etc.

However, I've recently found that taking the installed R folder and using
it on another PC without running the installer *seems* to work just fine
(at least for my use case of simply accessible the executables). This would
make "installing"/"uninstalling" easier as it would simply be a case of
copying the folder, and later on deleting it.

I was wondering if there is anything I'm missing here that would make this
not feasible.

Can I safely use an installed R folder, as a base for copying it to other
PCs in a portable manner?

Thanks,
Marc

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