R-beta: R rules!

[Douglas Bates]

Bill Simpson <wsimpson at uwinnipeg.ca> writes:

> I am a long-time Mac user.  R is way behind on that platform, which is one
> reason why I decided to try out Linux on intel.  I have the system set up
> and have installed R (using Slackware, which is only distribution my tech
> services wants me to use). It went very smoothly, thanks everyone behind
> R!

You might want to suggest to your tech services people that they look
at the RedHat or Debian distributions of Linux.  Slackware is pretty
ancient and not the greatest quality.  Those who have used several
different distributions generally feel that the package maintenance
systems on both RedHat and Debian are superior to that on Slackware.

> I installed R in the directory
> /usr/local/bin/R-0.50-a4/
> Not sure if this is a sensible set-up.

It would be more common to put it in something like
 /usr/local/lib/R-0.50-a4/

> Then I copied the shell script R (shows up in directory of
> /usr/local/bin/R-0.50-a4/
> as
> R*
> not as R)
> as suggested to
> /usr/local/bin/R
> 
> Typing R works if I cd to /usr/local/bin/R.  But if I am elsewhere it
> doesn't work.  Is there a way (like MSDOS path) to set it up so that I can
> be anywhere and type R to invoke it?

Yes, you should have a PATH environment variable and that should have
/usr/local/bin listed in it. (MSDOS copied the idea from Unix, not the 
other way around).  Try
 echo $PATH
from the shell.  It should look something like
 $ echo $PATH
 /usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/bin/X11:/home/bates/bin

If not, add /usr/local/bin to the PATH environment variable in .cshrc
(if you use the C-shell) or in .profile for other shells.  The syntax
for the .profile file is like
 PATH=/usr/local/bin:$PATH
 export PATH

-- 
Douglas Bates                            bates at stat.wisc.edu
Statistics Department                    608/262-2598
University of Wisconsin - Madison        http://www.stat.wisc.edu/~bates/
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