1. Linux

  • Note: Do not install on a headless machine because R and RStudio require a graphical user interface.

1.1. Installation

  • Enter the following commands at a Command Line.

    sudo apt-get install r-base
R --version

1.2. Usage

  • Start Applications > Graphics > R.

  • Enter the following commands.

    pkgbuild::check_build_tools(debug = TRUE)
pkgbuild::check_compiler(debug = TRUE)

  • Close R.

2. Windows

2.1. Installation

  • Note: Remove any previous version.

  • Run the R-4.4.0-win.exe file with administrative privileges.

  • Select English.

  • Click OK.

  • Click Next.

    C:\Program Files\R\R-4.4.0

  • Click Next.

  • Select User installation.

    ■ Main Files
■ 64-bit Files
■ Message translations

  • Click Next.

  • Choose No (accept default) to skip customizing the startup options.

    ○ Yes (customized startup)
● No (accept defaults)

  • Click Next.

  • Uncheck Don’t create a Start Menu folder.

  • Click Next.

  • Uncheck Create a desktop shortcut.

    □ Create a desktop shortcut
□ Create a Quick Launch shortcut
■ Save version number in registry
■ Associate R with .RData files

  • Click Next.

  • Click Finish.

2.2. Configuration

  • Note: To be able to use R in the Command Prompt, the installation directory needs to be added to the PATH system environment variable.

  • Open Control Panel > System.

  • Select Advanced system settings.

  • Select the Advanced tab.

  • Click Environment Variables.

  • Select System variables > Path.

  • Click Edit.

  • Click New.

  • Type C:\Program Files\R\R-4.4.0\bin\x64.

  • Click OK.

  • Click OK.

  • Click OK.

  • Close System.

  • Append the follwoing lines to the C:\Program Files\R\R-4.4.0\etc\Rprofile.site file.

    # Set maximum number of columns on a line (only needed for R-CLI).
# Note: In R-CLI Sys.getenv("COLUMNS") returns a valid number.
#       In R-GUI Sys.getenv("COLUMNS") returns an empty string.
if (Sys.getenv("COLUMNS") != "") {
  options(width=Sys.getenv("COLUMNS"))
  options(setWidthOnResize=TRUE)
}

as.integer(sub("^.* ", "", grep(value=TRUE, "Columns:", shell("mode con", intern=TRUE))))
columns <- as.integer(sub("^.* ", "", grep(value=TRUE, "Columns:", shell("mode con", intern=TRUE))))
print(columns)

# Set CRAN mirror to "East Asia [https]".
options(repos = c(CRAN = "https://cran.asia/"))

2.3. Usage

  • Start R from the Start menu.

  • Enter the following commands at the R Prompt.

    # Show directory in which R is installed (R_HOME).
R.home()                                # [1] "C:/PROGRA~1/R/R-44~1.0"
normalizePath(R.home())                 # "C:\\Program Files\\R\\R-4.4.0"
normalizePath(Sys.getenv("R_HOME"))     # [1] "C:\\Program Files\\R\\R-4.4.0"
Sys.getenv("R_HOME")                    # [1] "C:/PROGRA~1/R/R-44~1.0"

# Show user's home directory (HOME).
path.expand("~")        # [1] "C:\\Users\\Administrator\\Documents" / "C:\\Users\\Douwe\\Documents"
Sys.getenv("HOME")      # [1] "C:\\Users\\Administrator\\Documents" / "C:\\Users\\Douwe\\Documents"
# Show current working directory.
getwd()                 # [1] "C:/Users/Administrator" / "C:/Users/Douwe/Documents"

# Show the maximum number of columns on a line.
getOption("width")      # [1] 192 / 237

# Show CRAN mirror.
getOption("repos")      # CRAN = "https://cran.asia/"

# Show installed packages.
ip <- as.data.frame(installed.packages()[,c(1,3:4)])
rownames(ip) <- NULL
ip <- ip[is.na(ip$Priority),1:2,drop=FALSE]
print(ip, row.names=FALSE)

# Quit.
q(save = "no")

3. Optional