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I'm pretty sure this isn't possible, because if it were, then CRAN would have R Linux binary packages. Why isn't it possible? We can create Mac and Windows binary versions of R packages, and these tgz/zip files could be installed on different systems. Why can't we do the same for Linux?
I'm guessing because there are many different distros, and each distro is different. Is it possible to create binary files for Debian/Ubuntu and RHEL/CentOS?
If it's possible, how do we do it? Thanks.
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The binary format of an R package is useful because an R user can install a binary package without compiling all of the package's source code. In some cases source packages can take hours to install. Additionally, compiling package binaries requires locating and installing system prerequisites.
The universal binary of R is made available as an installer package; simply download the file and double-click the package to install the application.
(software) An archive file that contains all files and directories that must be installed in order to make a working installation of the program(s) included in the package, and the maintainer scripts necessary for the installation.
Alternatively, you can install R packages from the menu. In RStudio go to Tools → Install Packages and in the Install from option select Repository (CRAN) and then specify the packages you want. In classic R IDE go to Packages → Install package(s) , select a mirror and install the package.
Different compiler releases, different libc/libstc++ releases, different "other library" releases, different per-distro release cycles, ... make it that you just cannot match that goal with dynamic linking.
You can get half-way there as e.g. RStudio does by a) bundling all your depends and b) reflecting subsets as they do for Debian/Ubuntu and RH/FC/CentOS. But with a) the tarballs would get massive, as they would with static linking.
In short: you can't on Linux. So back to sources it is.
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