[R] when installing packages for R on Linux, is it better to use my distro's package manager, or install.packages()?

[Jeff Newmiller]

I always use a user library on all platforms. The renv package takes this to the next level and lets you setup per-project libraries. 

To be reproducible a data analysis needs to use the same user packages, and even different versions of R can give different results. It should be up to the analyst to decide when to use upgraded software, and system package managers are a poor choice for supporting that, even on a single-user machine.

On September 28, 2024 3:05:08 PM PDT, "Christopher W. Ryan" <cwr using agencystatistical.com> wrote:
>I'm running R (currently 4.4.1) on Linux Mint
>
>> sessionInfo()
>R version 4.4.1 (2024-06-14)
>Platform: x86_64-pc-linux-gnu
>Running under: Linux Mint 20.3
>...truncated...
>
>To install a new R package, is it better to use Linux Mint's pacakge
>manager (e.g. synaptic, apt-get, or similar), or to install it within R
>with install.packages("some_new_package")?
>
>I've done both over the years (perhaps a mistake that I will some day
>regret.)
>
>Pros and cons of these two methods?
>
>Thanks.
>
>--Chris Ryan
>

-- 
Sent from my phone. Please excuse my brevity.