How can I download a specific version of R on Linux?

Question

R 3.0 is my default version. I have R 2.14 installed and you want to use it because of package dependencies. Please note that packages cannot be created for version 3.0. How to get Ubuntu to download an earlier version?

Answer 1

Accordingly, you set PATH. There are tools / libraries that do this for you (usually in university environments with multiple versions of things in /usr/local/ or /opt .

Here is a simple ad-hoc version:

 edd@max :~$ which R # my default R /usr/bin/R edd@max :~$ R --version | head -1 R version 3.1.2 (2014-10-31) -- "Pumpkin Helmet" edd@max :~$ cat bin/R-devel.sh # a wrapper I use #!/bin/bash export PATH="/usr/local/lib/R-devel/bin:$PATH" R " $@ " edd@max :~$ # gives me another R edd@max :~$ R-devel.sh --version | head -1 R Under development (unstable) (2014-11-11 r66970) -- "Unsuffered Consequences" edd@max :~$ edd@max :~$ ( PATH="/usr/local/lib/R-devel/bin:$PATH" R --version | head -1 ) R Under development (unstable) (2014-11-11 r66970) -- "Unsuffered Consequences" edd@max :~$ 

A change in a file can be done using a script or in different ways. The key is that by prefacing the PATH with the one you need, you will get the first version.