R- giving permissions to update and install packages?

[MacD]

I am new to R and new-ish to Linux


I'm trying to install and update some packages in R.
R is not able to proceed due to not having permission to mkdir in /usr/lib/R/library

what is the sensible way to edit permissions for this directory?

Thanks.

Mac

[akniss]

There are two ways to install packages in R.

If you want to install directly from a CRAN mirror, you will need to start an R session as root. DO NOT start modifying the permissions of the install directory... this can cause major problems and is a security issue.

sudo R
install.packages('pkg_name')

A window will then appear where you can choose the CRAN mirror to use. Once selected, it will install everything with the proper permissions. Once installed, exit R and start it again as a normal user.

q()
R

You may also install from a local source if you have downloaded the package to your computer. This must also be done as sudo.

sudo R CMD INSTALL /home/username/pkg_name.tar.gz

[MacD]

Good advice, thank you.

I had just done my first chmod-ing based in this advice:

http://osdir.com/ml/lang.r.debian/2006-03/msg00005.html

but wasn't getting anywhere. Turns out I didn't know how permissions work. Now I do thanks to this excellent resource:

http://catcode.com/teachmod/index.html

just changed all the permissions back.