Setting Up R in Terminal (Windows) and Jupyter

Setting Up R in Terminal (Windows) and Jupyter#

Author: Bo Yuan (boy6@illinois.edu)

Course: STAT 530, Spring 2025

This guide covers setting up R in Windows terminal (PowerShell, CMD). This setup is optional but potentially helpful for future study.

Note for macOS users: After installing R, terminal setup is usually automatic. Contact TA if you encounter issues.

Initial Installation#

  1. Download R from the CRAN website

  2. For Windows users, select and install the .exe file with default settings

  3. Make sure to check “Add R to system PATH” during installation

Verifying Installation#

Open PowerShell and run:

R --version

Running R in Windows PowerShell#

  • Start R Interactive Mode: Type R and press Enter

  • Run R Scripts: Use Rscript script.R to execute R files

Troubleshooting Common Issues#

Path Configuration#

If R command is not found:

  1. Add R installation path to system environment variable Path

  2. Typical path: C:\Program Files\R\R-x.x.x\bin (replace x.x.x with your R version)

  3. Verify path with: $env:Path in PowerShell

PowerShell Alias Conflict#

Check for Alias#

First, check if ‘r’ is already defined as an alias:

Get-Alias r

If you see the following output, there’s an alias conflict:

CommandType     Name                Version    Source
-----------     ----                -------    ------
Alias           r -> Invoke-History

Note: Typically it’s Invoke-History, but could be different if you’ve set custom aliases.

Remove Alias#

⚠️ Only proceed if you don’t need r for Invoke-History:

Remove-Item Alias:r

However, this only lasts until you restart PowerShell.

Alternative Direct Execution#

If alias issues persist, you can directly call R.exe:

& "C:\Program Files\R\R-x.x.x\bin\R.exe"

(Replace x.x.x with your actual R version)

Setting Up R in Jupyter Notebook#

Prerequisites#

  1. Make sure you have Jupyter Notebook installed

  2. R must be properly installed on your system (follow steps above)

Installation Steps#

  1. Install IRkernel Open R and run these commands:

    install.packages('IRkernel')
IRkernel::installspec()

  2. Verify Installation

    • Launch Jupyter Notebook:

      jupyter notebook

    • Click “New” and verify that “R” appears in the dropdown menu

Troubleshooting Jupyter Integration#

If R kernel doesn’t appear:

  1. Ensure R installation is in system PATH

  2. Try running IRkernel installation with admin privileges

  3. Restart Jupyter Notebook after installation

Common Issues:

  • If you see “kernel not found” errors, reinstall IRkernel

  • For package installation errors, try:

    install.packages('IRkernel', repos='http://cran.us.r-project.org')