Installing different versions of R simultaneously on Linux

This is really an R-devel question.

On Fri, 27 Feb 2009, Rainer M Krug wrote:

Hi

I want to install some versions of R simultaneously from source on a
computer (running Linux). Some programs have an option to specify a
suffix for the executable (eg R would become R-2.7.2 when the suffix
is specified as "-2.7.2"). I did not find this option for R - did I
overlook it?

If it is not, how is it possible to have several versions of R on one
computer, or is the only way to compile them and then call R in the
directory of the version where it was compiled (~/R-2.7.2/bin/R)?

If this is the case, would it be possible to add this o[ptiuon to
specify the suffix for the executables?

'R' is not an executable, but a shell script.

You can use 'prefix' to install R anywhere, or other variables for more
precise control (see the R-admin manual). ?For example, we use rhome to have
R 2.8.x under /usr/local/lib64/R-2.8 etc.

And you can rename $prefix/bin/R to, say, R-2.7.2, or link R_HOME/bin/R to
anywhere in yout path, under any name you choose.

./configure --prefix=/usr/bin/R-2.7.2
make
ln -s /usr/R-2.7.2/bin/R /usr/bin/R-2.7.2

R-2.7.2

Thanks

Rainer
--
Rainer M. Krug, PhD (Conservation Ecology, SUN), MSc (Conservation
Biology, UCT), Dipl. Phys. (Germany)

Centre of Excellence for Invasion Biology
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Brian D. Ripley, ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk
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