Change R default library path using .libPaths in Rprofile.site fails to work

Question

I am running R on Windows, not as an administrator. When I install a package, the following command doesn\'t work:

> install.packages(\"zoo\")
Installing          


        

Answer 1

Since most of the answers here are related to Windows & Mac OS, (and considering that I also struggled with this) I decided to post the process that helped me solve this problem on my Arch Linux setup.

Step 1:

• Do a global search of your system (e.g. ANGRYSearch) for the term Renviron (which is the configuration file where the settings for the user libraries are set).
• It should return only two results at the following directory paths:
  
  1. /etc/R/
     
  2. /usr/lib/R/etc/
     NOTE: The Renviron config files stored at 1 & 2 (above) are hot-linked to each other (which means changes made to one file will automatically be applied [ in the same form / structure ] to the other file when the file being edited is saved - [ you also need sudo rights for saving the file post-edit ] ).

Step 2:

• Navigate into the 1st directory path ( /etc/R/ ) and open the Renviron file with your favourite text editor.
• Once inside the Renviron file search for the R_LIBS_USER tag and update the text in the curly braces section to your desired directory path.
  
  EXAMPLE:
  ... Change From ( original entry ):
  R_LIBS_USER=${R_LIBS_USER-'~/R/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-library/4.0'}
  ... Change To ( your desired entry ):
  R_LIBS_USER=${R_LIBS_USER-'~/Apps/R/rUserLibs'}
  

Step 3:

• Save the Renviron file you've just edited ... DONE !!