[BioC] Warning message while trying to install Bioconductor

[Wolfgang Huber]

On 31 May 2014, at 23:53, Steve Lianoglou <lianoglou.steve at gene.com> wrote:
> On Sat, May 31, 2014 at 1:46 PM, Felix Francis [guest]
>> While trying to install Bioconductor, I get this warning message:
>> installed directory not writable, cannot update packages 'boot', 'class', 'cluster', 'foreign', 'KernSmooth', 'lattice', 'MASS',
>>  'Matrix', 'mgcv', 'nlme', 'nnet', 'rpart', 'spatial'
> 
> It sounds like you do not have permissions to write into the installed
> directory that R was installed in on the computer you are using.
> 
> Running the update/install as an administrator on the machine would
> likely do the trick.

Depending on how valuable the machine is, or how many users work with it, it is preferable to install R as well as its libraries with an account with limited rights; and then to use that account also for package updates and the installation of additional packages, as what Felix is trying to do.

Doing it as administrator seems like leaving a hole for through which bad things could be done (intentionally or unintentionally) . I’ve not yet seen this actually happening, though.

	Wolfgang