title: Manually Downloading and Installing Packages in R
body: <p>I am currently trying to run some R code on a computing cluster but cannot run the <code>install.packages</code> function due to some weird firewall settings on my cluster. Since I am only using a few packages in my R code, I was hoping to avoid using the <code>install.packages</code> function by downloading and installing the packages manually. </p>
  
  <p>Note: I am aware that there is a way to avoid this issue by using an HTTP proxy as described in the R FAQ. Unfortunately the people in charge of my cluster are not being helpful in setting this up so I'm forced to consider this alternative approach. </p>
  
  <p>Ideally, I would like to download the packages files from CRAN to my computer, then upload these files to the cluster and install them using the appropriate commands in R. In addition, I would also like to make sure that the packages are installed to a location of my choice since I do not have the permission to "write" in the default R directory (I believe that I can do this within R by using the <code>.libPaths</code> function)</p>
  
  <p>Lastly, the computers that I am working with on the cluster are Unix x86_64.</p>