[R] Running R from CD?

[Prof Brian Ripley]

Let's be a little careful here.  An R for Windows installation is 
relocatable, so you can just install it into a temporary directory and 
burn a copy of that onto CD.  (That may not be true after installing 
packages into a non-default library.)  It is not true of a Unix or MacOS X 
installation, as far as I am aware, for they have absolute paths coded 
into the files.

However, an R session does need to be able to write to a temporary 
directory, and also needs a `home' directory and at a last resort the 
latter defaults to the current directory.  So you do need to be running on 
a machine on which you have a writable area.

A policy that says you cannot install a program, but you can run from a CD 
and you can let such a program write to your area seems full of holes to 
me.  (Ours does not allow low-privilege users to run programs from a CD.)
Also, many organizations ban the use of USB drives for security reasons.

BTW, I believe running R 2.0.x from a CD will be a lot slower than 1.9.1
because of lazy loading and frequent file accesses: that's a theoretical 
issue we intend to address for 2.1.0, but not one anyone has yet commented 
that it is a problem.


On Mon, 22 Nov 2004, Jari Oksanen wrote:

> On Mon, 2004-11-22 at 02:41, bogdan romocea wrote:
>> Better install and run R from a USB flash drive. This will save you
>> the trouble of re-writing the CD as you upgrade and install new
>> packages. Also, you can simply copy the R installation on your work
>> computer (no install rights needed); R will run.
>>
> I think there is a niche (= a hole in the wall) for a live CD: it is
> cheaper to distribute 20 copies of CD's to your audience than 20 USB
> memory sticks. Instructions would be welcome.
>>
>> From: Hans van Walen <hans_at_vanwalen.com>
>
>> At work I have no permission to install R. So, would anyone know
>> whether it is possible to create a CD with a running R-installation
>> for a windows(XP) pc? And of course, how to?
>>
> Check the file Getting-Started-with-the-Rcmdr.pdf in John Fox's Rcmdr
> package. You should be able to reach this package by launching
> help.start(), and then browsing its directory in the help browser
> window. Go to chapter "7. Some Suggestions for Instructors" which tells
> you how to make a live CD of R in Windows. I haven't tried this, since I
> don't have Windows, but I sure will when I got to be an "instructor" in
> a Windows class.
>
> cheers, jari oksanen
> -- 
> Jari Oksanen <jarioksa at sun3.oulu.fi>
>
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-- 
Brian D. Ripley,                  ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk
Professor of Applied Statistics,  http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/
University of Oxford,             Tel:  +44 1865 272861 (self)
1 South Parks Road,                     +44 1865 272866 (PA)
Oxford OX1 3TG, UK                Fax:  +44 1865 272595