Question

I am trying to install a local copy of R on a server without admin privileges. I know almost nothing about servers, or linux. I can easily access a copy of R by typing “R”, however the server I am working off of only has an old copy of R (v2.10.1). I need at least v2.14 to run my scripts, although I would prefer to install the most recent release.

As far as I understand, my server runs Redhat e15 x86_64 GNU/Linux. I have the server mapped to my windows computer, and tried doing a regular install of Windows R onto the server, but when I try and run the R.exe file I get an error stating I “cannot execute binary file”.

I found on the CRAN website what I think I should download:

Under the linux installation… redhat/e15/x86_64

But the folder only contains v2.10. I found this thread about installing R on Redhat, but I am still at a loss for how (if possible) to install/build my own copy of R.

Answer 1

Generally, building R from source and installing it into your homedirectory is quite easy (I do this too at work). The procedure roughly boils down to the following procedure:

• create a directory in which you want to install R, e.g. ~/progsandlibs/. You can also use this directory for all other custom software you install.
• Download R from CRAN.
• Extract the tar.gz file you downloaded using tar
• Go into the R-2.15.2 directory.
• Give the following commands:
  • ./configure --prefix=~/progsandlibs/ --enable-R-shlib
  • make
  • make install
• Add ~/progsandlibs/bin/ to your PATH environment variable. Easiest is to add a line to your .bashrc: export PATH=~/progsandlibs/bin/:$PATH.

If all the steps above worked correctly, you have R installed, and you can start it from your terminal.