Example: How to install a package for R on Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard

Submitted by John on Tue, 2009-07-07 14:20

Assuming that you already have the R statistics program installed on your Mac, the following can be used to install a package from the command line.

First, get the .tgz file (we'll use plotrix as the package we want to install):

$ curl http://cran.r-project.org/bin/macosx/universal/contrib/r-release/plotrix_2.6-1.tgz > plotrix_2.6-1.tgz

Check that R is properly installed:

$ which R
/usr/bin/R

Install the package:

$ sudo R CMD INSTALL plotrix_2.6-1.tgz
Password:
* Installing to library '/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Resources/library'
* Installing *binary* package 'plotrix' ...
* DONE (plotrix)

Check that everything is happy:

$ ls -l /Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Resources/library/
total 8
drwxrwxr-x  16 root  admin  544 Jun 26 09:59 KernSmooth
drwxrwxr-x  20 root  admin  680 Jun 26 09:59 MASS
drwxrwxr-x  22 root  admin  748 Jun 26 09:59 Matrix
-rw-rw-r--   1 root  admin  866 Jun 26 10:00 R.css
drwxrwxr-x  15 root  admin  510 Jun 26 09:59 base
drwxrwxr-x  16 root  admin  544 Jun 26 09:59 boot
drwxrwxr-x  18 root  admin  612 Jun 26 09:59 class
drwxrwxr-x  16 root  admin  544 Jun 26 09:59 cluster
drwxrwxr-x  13 root  admin  442 Jun 26 09:59 codetools
drwxrwxr-x  13 root  admin  442 Jun 26 09:59 datasets
drwxrwxr-x  18 root  admin  612 Jun 26 09:59 foreign
drwxrwxr-x  17 root  admin  578 Jun 26 09:59 grDevices
drwxrwxr-x  15 root  admin  510 Jun 26 09:59 graphics
drwxrwxr-x  16 root  admin  544 Jun 26 09:59 grid
drwxrwxr-x  19 root  admin  646 Jun 26 09:59 lattice
drwxrwxr-x  15 root  admin  510 Jun 26 10:00 methods
drwxrwxr-x  15 root  admin  510 Jun 26 09:59 mgcv
drwxrwxr-x  21 root  admin  714 Jun 26 09:59 nlme
drwxrwxr-x  18 root  admin  612 Jun 26 09:59 nnet
drwxr-xr-x  15 root  admin  510 Jul  7 14:30 plotrix
drwxrwxr-x  17 root  admin  578 Jun 26 09:59 rpart
drwxrwxr-x  20 root  admin  680 Jun 26 09:59 spatial
drwxrwxr-x  15 root  admin  510 Jun 26 09:59 splines
drwxrwxr-x  18 root  admin  612 Jun 26 09:59 stats
drwxrwxr-x  14 root  admin  476 Jun 26 09:59 stats4
drwxrwxr-x  16 root  admin  544 Jun 26 09:59 survival
drwxrwxr-x  17 root  admin  578 Jun 26 09:59 tcltk
drwxrwxr-x  15 root  admin  510 Jun 26 09:59 tools
drwxrwxr-x  17 root  admin  578 Jun 26 09:59 utils

Sure enough, plotrix is there nestled among the other packages.

Topic: 
Mac OS X

Comments

Submitted by Vic (not verified) on Thu, 2010-01-21 11:22.

Hi John,

I'm having problems trying to install Rcapture into R on a Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. I tried following your post but the email address doesnt seem to work any longer.

Any pointers would be gratefully received.

Cheers

Vic

Submitted by vijay (not verified) on Fri, 2010-08-06 11:25.

Thanks a ton for your post. It saved a lot of time! :)
Vijay

Submitted by Jean (not verified) on Wed, 2011-03-16 13:33.

Thanks a lot!! It helped me very much.

Submitted by Tim Erickson (not verified) on Tue, 2012-07-24 16:23.

Clear instructions, and, and... they WORK! You're a lifesaver! Thanks!