Dear all, I am trying to install R on a (Linux Debian) machine where I do not have root access. So far I succeeded in compiling from source and running R. But I would really like to be able to use "make install" and to be able to install certain packages such as foreign. Now these actions require permissions for directories that I do not have. In particular I would like R home to be ~/bin/R, the libraries to reside in ~/lib, and so on. I looked in the INSTALL script and it would seem to be possible to accomplish this by editing INSTALL.in, running ./configure and make-ing again. But the INSTALL.in file is rather daunting and I do not know which variables I need to change... Any help or pointers would be greatly appreciated here. Best regards, Daniel
Well, the INSTALL _script_ is for installing packages. But the top-level INSTALL file says 'This document concerns building and installing R from sources. Pre-made binaries are made available for some systems with varying regularity and can be obtained from CRAN (see the RESOURCES file). The main source of information on installation is the `R Installation and Administration Manual', an HTML copy of which is available as file `doc/html/R-admin.html'. Please read that before installing R. But if you are impatient, read on but please refer to the manual to resolve any problems. (If you obtained R using Subversion, the manual is at doc/manual/R-admin.texi.)' The cited manual does tell you how to install R in other places. For example, ./configure --prefix=$HOME/R make make install will install into ~/R. (Since ~ is not an sh concept, you do need to use $HOME.) There is a lot more detail in the manual, and you can even install to a different place once R is built. On Wed, 2 Jan 2008, Daniel Oberski wrote:> Dear all, > > > I am trying to install R on a (Linux Debian) machine where I do not > have root access. So far I succeeded in compiling from source and > running R. > > But I would really like to be able to use "make install" and to be > able to install certain packages such as foreign. Now these actions > require permissions for directories that I do not have. > > In particular I would like R home to be ~/bin/R, the libraries to > reside in ~/lib, and so on. > > I looked in the INSTALL script and it would seem to be possible to > accomplish this by editing INSTALL.in, running ./configure and > make-ing again. But the INSTALL.in file is rather daunting and I do > not know which variables I need to change... > > Any help or pointers would be greatly appreciated here. > > > Best regards, > > Daniel-- Brian D. Ripley, ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk Professor of Applied Statistics, http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/ University of Oxford, Tel: +44 1865 272861 (self) 1 South Parks Road, +44 1865 272866 (PA) Oxford OX1 3TG, UK Fax: +44 1865 272595
On Wed, 02-Jan-2008 at 10:08PM +0100, Daniel Oberski wrote:
|> Dear all,
|>
|>
|> I am trying to install R on a (Linux Debian) machine where I do not
|> have root access. So far I succeeded in compiling from source and
|> running R.
|>
|> But I would really like to be able to use "make install" and to
be
|> able to install certain packages such as foreign. Now these actions
|> require permissions for directories that I do not have.
|>
|> In particular I would like R home to be ~/bin/R, the libraries to
|> reside in ~/lib, and so on.
It's simple to make a link from ~/bin/R to the executable that the
installation process creates. Even on a machine where I have root
access, I prefer to do it that way. It's better than make install
since it's simpler to use other versions of R (which will have a
slightly different link). My ~/bin/ has links such as these:
R -> /usr/local/R-2.6.1/bin/R
R260 -> /usr/local/R-2.6.0/bin/R
Where you don't have root access, that won't be /usr/local/.
Substitute where you have it.
No need to tinker with the configure script.
HTH
--
~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.
___ Patrick Connolly
{~._.~} Great minds discuss ideas
_( Y )_ Middle minds discuss events
(:_~*~_:) Small minds discuss people
(_)-(_) ..... Anon
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