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): <source lang='bash'>

 R_LIBS_USER="~/R/library"

</source> 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 <source lang='bash'>

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

</source> Set your R library path <source lang='bash'>

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

</source>

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.

<source lang='bash'>

 R                     # Invoke R

</source> Then, from the R environment, install the packages you require while pointing at the root R-package directory of choice: <source lang='rsplus'> install.packages("name-of-your-package",lib="~/R/library") </source>

External links

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