How to install the R language on Linux
R is a programming language mainly used in data science for data visualization and statistical analysis. Due to the wide range of applications of R language in machine learning, researchers and statisticians require it in various fields like academia, finance, and marketing. In this Answer, we will discuss how to install the R on different distributions (illustrated below) of Linux.
R on Ubuntu
R on Debian
R on Fedora
Let us go through all these individually.
R on Ubuntu
Open a terminal to install R on Ubuntu. First, update the package lists and upgrade the packages with the help of the command below.
sudo apt update -qqsudo apt upgrade
The -qq in the update command makes the output less verbose.
We need to add software repositories. Before it, we will install the
software-properties-common, anddirmngrpackages. Run the following command on Linux to perform this action.
sudo apt install --no-install-recommends software-properties-common dirmngr:
Now install the public key for the CRAN repository to the system's trusted keyring. The
teeand-acommands are used to write and append the output to the file specified.
wget -qO- https://cloud.r-project.org/bin/linux/ubuntu/marutter_pubkey.asc | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/cran_ubuntu_key.asc
Your system is ready to add the CRAN repository. In the command given below, the
$(lsb_release -cs)part dynamically retrieves the Ubuntu code to ensure the correct repository version is added.
sudo add-apt-repository "deb https://cloud.r-project.org/bin/linux/ubuntu $(lsb_release -cs)-cran40/
Update the packages; now, your system has an R language installed. To check the version of the installed R language, follow the command below.
R --version
The output of the command will be as:
R on Debian
Follow the instructions presented below to install the R language on Debian.
Import the GPG key into the system. As shown in the command below, the key server used here is
keyserver.ubuntu.com.
sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-key '95C0FAF38DB3CCAD0C080A7BDC78B2DDEABC47B7
To add the CRAN repository in Debian, run the following command.
sudo add-apt-repository "deb https://cloud.r-project.org/bin/linux/debian $(lsb_release -cs)-cran40/
After doing this, don't forget to update the packages.
R on Fedora
Installing the R language on Fedora is very simple because Fedora supports R and is readily available for installation using the package manager dnf.
Only run the following command to install R on Fedora:
sudo dnf install R
To open the R terminal on your systems, you can type R and press enter; here, you can run the R commands and make your program. Here is a simple program that prints "Hello World" in R.
Some programs in the R language require packages that need to be installed. There are several packages in the R language, which are represented below.
We can install these packages with a very simple command, install.packages(package_name).
Look at the below illustration where we installed the magrittr package in R.
Conclusion
The R programming language is a powerful tool widely used in data science. Moreover, it has a large number of packages for analyzing data. In this Answer, we walked you through the step-by-step installation of R on different distributions of Linux, namely Ubuntu, Debian, and Fedora.
