Install R on any Linux Distro (Debian, Fedora/Redhat, Ubuntu)

R is an open-source programming language mainly used by statisticians and data scientists to perform statistical analysis. It is great for statistical computing, with robust features for generating detailed statistical visualizations.

The R packages included in the default repositories are often outdated. We will install the latest R package from the CRAN repository.

New article — Lightweight Linux Distros perfect for older hardware.

How to Install R on Linux Distros (Debian, Fedora/Redhat, Ubuntu)

This guide covers the 4 specific ways to install R on Linux distributions.

System Requirements

• RAM— 1 GB required, 2 GB recommended.
• a non-root with sudo privileges on the user account.

1. Install R from the terminal

Type in the following commands in terminal.

Install dependencies

	
  sudo apt install dirmngr gnupg apt-transport-https ca-certificates software-properties-common
  

Add the CRAN repository to your system

	
	sudo add-apt-repository 'deb https://cloud.r-project.org/bin/linux/ubuntu focal-cran40/'
  

Install R by typing

	
	sudo apt install r-base
  

Verify the R version

	
	R --version
  

2. Download via Homebrew

You can download R by typing a homebrew command:

	
	brew install r
  

3. Download via XCode

Type the following command to install R through XCode:

	
	xcode-select --install
  

4. Download R with the Web Browser

You can get the latest R package from cran.r-project.org

That’s it!

You are ready.