Originally shared on LinkedIn on 2026-02-11 (UTC).
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If you use RStudio on Linux (e.g., using the WRDS RStudio Server platform) and your packages are still compiling from source, do yourself a favour and follow the instructions here
Type cat /etc/os-release at the command line and use that information to answer the “what Linux distribution are you using?” question, then proceed with the Repository URL provided.
(I know there are other solutions for this, but this one comes with easy instructions.)
Posit’s interface has changed since this post. Its current instructions are to choose the CRAN repository, use Select Distribution in the repository menu to select a compatible Linux distribution, and then open Setup to obtain the repository URL. In RStudio, paste that URL into Tools → Global Options → Packages → Primary CRAN repository. See Posit’s distribution instructions and R configuration guide.
For Linux binaries, use the URL generated for the appropriate distribution rather than a generic source-repository URL. Posit also documents R user-agent configuration and runtime dependencies, which may matter if packages still compile from source.