Introduction

An open-source programming language, R specializes in statistical computing and graphics. In this tutorial, we will install R on an Ubuntu 20.04 server.

For a more detailed version of this tutorial, with more thorough explanations of each step, please refer to How To Install R on Ubuntu 20.04.

Step 1 — Adding GPG Key

Logged into your Ubuntu 20.04 server as a sudo non-root user, add the relevant GPG key.

sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys E298A3A825C0D65DFD57CBB651716619E084DAB9

Step 2 — Adding the R Repository

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

If you’re not using 20.04, find the relevant repository from the R Project Ubuntu list, named for each release.

Step 3 — Updating Package Lists

sudo apt update

Step 4 — Installing R

sudo apt install r-base

Step 5 — Testing the Installation

Start R’s interactive shell as root.

sudo -i R

You should receive output similar to the following:

Output

R version 4.0.0 (2020-04-24) -- "Arbor Day"
Copyright (C) 2020 The R Foundation for Statistical Computing
Platform: x86_64-pc-linux-gnu (64-bit)
...
Type 'demo()' for some demos, 'help()' for on-line help, or
'help.start()' for an HTML browser interface to help.
Type 'q()' to quit R.

> 

This confirms that we’ve successfully installed R and entered its interactive shell.