Installing R on OS X

小咪咪 2022-08-09 11:50 41阅读 0赞

October 20, 2015

By  [hrbrmstr][]

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(This article was first published on  **[rud.is » R][rud.is _ R]**, and kindly contributed to [R-bloggers)][R-bloggers]

I was in a conversation with an academic colleague (wicked smart dude) and the subject of installing R came up (NOTE: this will happen to you, too, if you ever have the misfortune to have a face-to-face convo with me ;-). They noted that getting up and running with R was not as seamless as one would like it to be and, to be honest, I have to agree, especially after typing the rest of this post out.

I recently had a similar experience helping folks who use Windows get R & RStudio up and running and that’s even more of a nightmare, especially if you do not have Administrator privileges (or, perhaps I just scare easily).

Prior to these experiences, I never really stopped to consider just how less friendly the installation process of R is when compared to Excel, Tableau or other apps one might use for data analysis and visualization. Hopefully this will becomre a top priority for the [R Consortium][].

Since this colleague uses OS X, I offered to put together instructions for how to get R & RStudio installed and finally had 5 minutes to crank out a blog post to help the broader community with the information.

--------------------

### Get R ###

*  Go to [https://cran.rstudio.com/bin/macosx/][https_cran.rstudio.com_bin_macosx]
 *  If you’re on a recent version of OS X, download the first`.pkg` link. As of this post, it’s `R-3.2.2.pkg` and the direct URL is [https://cran.rstudio.com/bin/macosx/R-3.2.2.pkg][https_cran.rstudio.com_bin_macosx_R-3.2.2.pkg]
 *  Install the package by double-clicking on it and working through the prompts.

![R\_for\_Mac\_OS\_X][R_for_Mac_OS_X]

--------------------

### Verify R itself is working ###

*  Look in the `Applications` folder for the R application.
 *  Double-click it and you should see an R console window.
 *  If that did not work, try installing R again
 *  Once you’ve verified R is working, quit the app

![R\_Console][R_Console]

--------------------

### Download RStudio ###

RStudio is an integrated development environment for R that will make your life and coding easier.

*  Go to [https://www.rstudio.com/products/rstudio/download/][https_www.rstudio.com_products_rstudio_download]and download the RStudio version for Mac OS X. It’ll say something like `RStudio 0.99.486 - Mac OS X 10.6+ (64-bit)`. The direct URL for that verison (which was current at the time of this post) is[https://download1.rstudio.org/RStudio-0.99.486.dmg][https_download1.rstudio.org_RStudio-0.99.486.dmg]
 *  Double-click that DMG file
 *  Drag the RStudio icon to the `Applications` folder.

![RStudio\_-\_Download\_RStudio][RStudio_-_Download_RStudio]

--------------------

### Verify RStudio & R are working together ###

*  Look in the `Applications` folder for the RStudio application.
 *  Double-click it and you should see an RStudio window with four panes.

![niasra\_uow\_edu\_au\_content\_groups\_public\_\_web\_\_inf\_\_math\_documents\_mm\_uow183084\_pdf][niasra_uow_edu_au_content_groups_public_web_inf_math_documents_mm_uow183084_pdf]

From now on, just start RStudio when you want to work in R.

--------------------

### \[Optional\] Install XQuartz ###

Some functions in R require an “X11 Server” and/or libraries associated with an X11 server. Apple does not provide this software with OS X anymore so you have to do it on your own via a third-party application called [XQuartz][rud.is _ R].

*  Go to [http://xquartz.macosforge.org/landing/][http_xquartz.macosforge.org_landing] and download the top-most “quick download” disk image file. As of this post, that’s version 2.7.8 and this is the direct link[http://xquartz.macosforge.org/downloads/SL/XQuartz-2.7.8.dmg][http_xquartz.macosforge.org_downloads_SL_XQuartz-2.7.8.dmg]
 *  Double click the downloaded disk image then double click on the `XQuartz.pkg` and follow the installation steps.

![XQuartz][]

--------------------

### \[Optional\] Install Xcode Tools ###

Some R packages require compilation. That requires utilities not installed on OS X by default. You can wait to do the following until it’s needed, but since you’re already installing things…

*  Get Xcode[https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/xcode/id497799835?mt=12][https_itunes.apple.com_us_app_xcode_id497799835_mt_12] and install it like any “normal” Mac application
 *  When the intallation is done, open Xcode then close it just to verify it installed correctly
 *  Find and open the `Terminal` program in the `Utilities` folder under the `Applications` folder
 *  Paste the following into the Termainal window and hit enter/return (accept any dialog/prompt):

<table style="border-collapse:collapse; border-spacing:0px; margin:1em 0px"> 
 <tbody> 
  <tr> 
   <td style="border:1px solid rgb(204,204,204); padding:6px"> <pre style="white-space:pre-wrap; word-wrap:break-word">xcode-select --install<span style="font-weight:bold">`</span></pre> </td> 
  </tr> 
 </tbody> 
</table>

*  Close the Terminal application

--------------------

### \[Optional\] Set yourself up for easier future compiled package installation ###

Some R packages need additional libraries to work and most aren’t on your system by default. There are a myriad of ways to get these libraries, and the way I obtain them is via the[`homebrew`][homebrew] utility. You can save yourself the trouble of installing`homebrew` later by doing the following now:

*  Find and open the `Terminal` program in the `Utilities` folder under the `Applications` folder
 *  Paste the following into the Terminal window and hit enter/return:

<table style="border-collapse:collapse; border-spacing:0px; margin:1em 0px"> 
 <tbody> 
  <tr> 
   <td style="border:1px solid rgb(204,204,204); padding:6px"> <pre style="white-space:pre-wrap; word-wrap:break-word">ruby <span style="color:rgb(102,0,51)">-e</span> <span style="color:rgb(255,0,0)">"<span style="color:rgb(0,120,0)">$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)</span>"</span></pre> </td> 
  </tr> 
 </tbody> 
</table>

*  Read and accept the various prompts until it’s installed
 *  Close the Terminal application

You can now do `brew install xyz` in the future when a library is needed to support a package. Drop a note in the comments if you’d like this discussed more in a future blog post.

--------------------

### \[Optional\] \[If you have an hour+ to kill\] Install MacTeX ###

R has an academic history and there are many semi-advanced functions that are tied to something called [`latex`][latex]. Installing latex for OS X is not hard, just time (and bandwidth) consuming (it’s about the same size as a new OS X installer). If you delve into package creation or do more detailed output work in R, you’ll want to install MacTex sooner than later.

*  Go to [https://tug.org/mactex/mactex-download.html][https_tug.org_mactex_mactex-download.html] and download the latest `MacTeX.pkg` file. This direct link should always work (until they change up the way their site works) [http://tug.org/cgi-bin/mactex-download/MacTeX.pkg][http_tug.org_cgi-bin_mactex-download_MacTeX.pkg]
 *  Double-click the pkg installer and follow the prompts. The defaults should all be good enough for now.

--------------------

### Fin ###

If you have any changes/additions/etc drop a note in the comments. I may even stick this on github to make it easier to contribute in the future.

[hrbrmstr]: http://www.r-bloggers.com/author/hrbrmstr/
[rud.is _ R]: http://rud.is/b/2015/10/20/installing-r-on-os-x/
[R-bloggers]: http://www.r-bloggers.com/
[R Consortium]: https://www.r-consortium.org/
[https_cran.rstudio.com_bin_macosx]: https://cran.rstudio.com/bin/macosx/
[https_cran.rstudio.com_bin_macosx_R-3.2.2.pkg]: https://cran.rstudio.com/bin/macosx/R-3.2.2.pkg
[R_for_Mac_OS_X]: /images/20220731/90bb569ef38647548dd70e97a62d1404.png
[R_Console]: /images/20220731/71b99b94addf4aa3a604541ac7449686.png
[https_www.rstudio.com_products_rstudio_download]: https://www.rstudio.com/products/rstudio/download/
[https_download1.rstudio.org_RStudio-0.99.486.dmg]: https://download1.rstudio.org/RStudio-0.99.486.dmg
[RStudio_-_Download_RStudio]: /images/20220731/46984afc62bf4693968c9c21d0646904.png
[niasra_uow_edu_au_content_groups_public_web_inf_math_documents_mm_uow183084_pdf]: /images/20220731/372a18544d9d482fa91bda11afe7396f.png
[http_xquartz.macosforge.org_landing]: http://xquartz.macosforge.org/landing/
[http_xquartz.macosforge.org_downloads_SL_XQuartz-2.7.8.dmg]: http://xquartz.macosforge.org/downloads/SL/XQuartz-2.7.8.dmg
[XQuartz]: /images/20220731/8225b55df48f42df89c83b013897ed06.png
[https_itunes.apple.com_us_app_xcode_id497799835_mt_12]: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/xcode/id497799835?mt=12
[homebrew]: http://brew.sh/
[latex]: https://www.latex-project.org/
[https_tug.org_mactex_mactex-download.html]: https://tug.org/mactex/mactex-download.html
[http_tug.org_cgi-bin_mactex-download_MacTeX.pkg]: http://tug.org/cgi-bin/mactex-download/MacTeX.pkg