[R-SIG-Mac] installing packages message

[Simon Urbanek]

David,

On Oct 29, 2005, at 4:56 AM, David Airey wrote:


> I have installed version 2.2.0 or R and I am getting a message when  
> trying to install packages I've not seen before. Can anyone explain  
> this?
>

This message is present for quite a while now, because it was not  
possible to install binary packages as root due to permission issues  
during the installation process. What the message tells you are two  
things:
1) you should be admin in order to install system-wide packages
2) the CRAN binary of R has the rights set up in such a way that  
admin users can install system-wide packages. If you compile R from  
sources, it's not the case.

Installing packages as root should not be necessary unless you  
compiled your own R and didn't run chmod g+w as recommended. There  
are a few issues with installing binary packages as root (such  
packages can only be updated as root and depending on the packaging  
may have unwanted permissions), but it's possible when done manually.  
Nevertheless the installation process has been changed in R 2.2.0 so  
maybe we should re-evaluate the impact.

Thanks,
Simon