Installing R packages locally

Specifying a local library search location

Specify a local library search location.

You can use several library trees of add-on packages. The easiest way to tell R to use these via a 'dotfile' by creating the following file '$HOME/.Renviron' (watch the quotes and ~ character):

  R_LIBS_USER="~/R/library"

This specifies a keyword (R_LIBS_USER) which points to a colon-separated list of directories at which R library trees are rooted. You do not have to specify the default tree for R packages.

If necessary, create a place for your R libraries

  mkdir ~/R ~/R/library         # Only need do this once

Set your R library path

  echo 'R_LIBS_USER="~/R/library"' >  $HOME/.Renviron

Installing to a local library search location

Installation is dead easy. Start up R and tell R to fetch your package from CRAN, compile whatever needs compiling and set everything else up.

Beware - each package will only work for the platform (i.e. Linux or Solaris) where you installed it. If you want a package on both Linux and Solaris, you'll need to install it in different directories for each system type.

  R                     # Invoke R

install.packages("name-of-your-package",lib="~/R/library")

R_LIBS_USER="~/R/library"

External links

source for material for this aricle