How to install R from tar gz file - r

Question

I have R in 3.6.3 version and I want to download 4.0.0 version. I downloaded from https://cran.r-project.org/src/base/R-4/ tar gz file but I have no idea how can I install it. Could you please give me a command which can install this R version from tar gz file ?

Answer 1

Install R from Source on Linux
You can find a detailed description for a range of different Linux systems here.
In short, you will need to run the following chain of commands:
First to install dependencies. This will depend on your Linux distribution. For Linux Mint, you can do
sudo apt-get build-dep r-base
Then, specify your desired R version
export R_VERSION=4.2.1
In a folder of your choice, download the .tar.gz (For versions other than 4.X, you may need to adjust the link)
curl -O https://cran.rstudio.com/src/base/R-4/R-${R_VERSION}.tar.gz
tar -xzvf R-${R_VERSION}.tar.gz
cd R-${R_VERSION}
To build and install, run from the same shell
./configure \
--prefix=/opt/R/${R_VERSION} \
--enable-memory-profiling \
--enable-R-shlib \
--with-blas \
--with-lapack
make
sudo make install
In case the ./configure ... step does not work out, you may need to install the missing binaries individually by hand.
You can check the installation by running
/opt/R/${R_VERSION}/bin/R --version
and create a symlink
sudo ln -s /opt/R/${R_VERSION}/bin/R /usr/local/bin/R
sudo ln -s /opt/R/${R_VERSION}/bin/Rscript /usr/local/bin/Rscript
Done!
Your R installation will be in
/opt/R/${R_VERSION}