How to create a portable R installation on Mac (M1/3)

  • Install Homebrew as described here.
  • Install following packages in Hombrew
    • brew install gcc xz pcre2
  • curl -O https://cran.r-project.org/src/base/R-4/R-4.2.2.tar.gz
  • tar -xzfv R-4.2.2.tar.gz
  • cd R-4.2.2
  • ./configure –prefix=$HOME/R-standalone –enable-R-shlib –with-lzma –with-pcre2 LDFLAGS=”-L/opt/homebrew/opt/xz/lib -L/opt/homebrew/opt/pcre2/lib” CPPFLAGS=”-I/opt/homebrew/opt/xz/include -I/opt/homebrew/opt/pcre2/include”
  • make -j$(sysctl -n hw.ncpu)
  • make install
  • Edit Rprofile.site file by typing: vi ~/R-4.2.2/lib/R/etc/Rprofile.site
  • At the bottom of this file add: .libPaths(file.path(R.home(), “library”))
  • Create the local library directory by typing: mkdir -p ~/R-4.2.2/lib/R/library
  • Start R: ~/R-4.2.2/bin/R
  • Check correct home directory is used by typing: R.home()
  • Check only libraries in ~/R-4.2.2 are used by typing: .libPaths()
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