R help - Jun 2007 - Unix-like permissions to allow a user to update recommended packages

I installed R from the tar.gz file (as root) in a directory under
/usr/local.  The recommended packages are installed in a library in
that directory whereas additional packages I install in a directory
under the /home directory as a user.

Updating the additional packages is very easy with update.packages()
as a non-root user, but the recommended packages cannot be done so
readily because of file permissions.

My question is how do I set the permissions or ownerships in the
/usr/local/R-2.5.0 directory so that everything necessary can be
writable by a user?  Should I make a group for R users (total of one
member) or is it simpler than that?

TIA

-- 
~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.   
   ___    Patrick Connolly   
 {~._.~}          		 Great minds discuss ideas    
 _( Y )_  	  	        Middle minds discuss events 
(:_~*~_:) 	       		 Small minds discuss people  
 (_)-(_)  	                           ..... Anon
	  
~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.

On 18-Jun-07 10:11:43, Patrick Connolly wrote:
> I installed R from the tar.gz file (as root) in a directory under
> /usr/local.  The recommended packages are installed in a library in
> that directory whereas additional packages I install in a directory
> under the /home directory as a user.
> 
> Updating the additional packages is very easy with update.packages()
> as a non-root user, but the recommended packages cannot be done so
> readily because of file permissions.
> 
> My question is how do I set the permissions or ownerships in the
> /usr/local/R-2.5.0 directory so that everything necessary can be
> writable by a user?  Should I make a group for R users (total of one
> member) or is it simpler than that?
Since you have root access, do you need to segregate the additional
packages to a particular user?

Though I don't run R as root for general use, I always install/update
by running R CMD as root. This makes all of R ("recommended" and also
any extras) available system-wide, and no pemission problems arise.

This of course does not stop you from setting up a special .Rprofile
for each user, since this by definition lives in the user's home
directory.

Does this help? Or are there issues you haven't mentioned which make
such an approach not feasible?

Best wishes,
Ted.

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Date: 18-Jun-07                                       Time: 11:53:19
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