The guys at R-project tell you that you can run R from a CD or USB drive (so it’s portable), but nowhere they provide you with a really portable version. I.e., you have to actually run the installer then you can make a portable copy of the R folder on your USB key. That’s not exactly practical because if for instance you want to “install” it at work on a restricted computer where you can’t run an installer, you need to start with some homework first…
So for the lazy like me, here is a portable version of R 2.14.2. I made it from a custom installation (containing the standard installation with i386 and x64 binaries, with Tcltk, and without language packs nor HTML or PDF manuals) and it’s in English, of course 🙂
Also, note that automatically installing additional packages should work fine on this portable version (I did so with my previous 2.10.0 portable, so no reason it wouldn’t work with that one).
Update (25 March 2012): reuploaded a new version (2.14.2) to Mediafire. The previous one was fairly outdated (2.11) and had been taken offline by the FBI when they shut down Megaupload, where it was hosted.
Thanks for sharing your contribution. Before picking it, I would like to know whether you know how to put together a portable Notepad++, with R syntax, and the portable version of R, so that you can lauch scripts form the portable Notepad++ directly to the Rgui, without having to move from window to window manually. Thanks once again!
I haven’t done this R+Notepad++ integration for a while. Last time I tried the plugin wasn’t compatible with the latest Notepad++ version, so I gave up since R syntax is now supported in Notepad++, which is good enough for my less than occasional use of R.
I just gave a new and brief try at NppToR, but with the non-existent (or hidden?) documentation all I managed to do was to destroy my Notepad++ Portable configuration file (oops :/). It seems that this tool is globally unhappy with the portable version of Notepad++. I remember using it, but I think it was on an unrestricted PC in another department, with Notepad++ non-portable.
Edit: it did screw my Notepad++ configuration file, but it does work indeed. What I configured in npptor.ini was:
[executables]R="[path to root folder of the R installation]"
Rcmdparms=[leave empty, or add whatever parameters you need]
Npp="[path to Notepad++Portable.exe, including the executable name]"
NppConfig="[path to Notepad++ Portable config directory, which shoud end like: \Data\settings]"
Then just launch NppToR.exe and you’re good to go. (press F8 in Notepad++ to send the syntax to R)
Thanks David.
Would you consider writing up how you put this together?
Maybe I wasn’t clear enough in the original post: all I did was ripping the whole R folder into a zip after a normal installation. R is natively “portable”, the only problem is that it only comes into an installer, which you can’t run on some restricted environments.