We highly recommend that you install multiple different versions of R side-by-side. This is the only way to ensure scripts that were written for one version of R don't inadvertently break when upgrading to new version of R. (Your base R code will likely still work, but new versions of packages may very well have different APIs.)
To install R side-by-side, you must install R from source. You can refer to these resources:
The process is actually really straight forward, and if you haven't done this before, I suggest following the steps in the RStudio Admin guide.
Some further advice:
- Follow the advice in the support article "Managing libraries for RStudio Server" on how to manage system and user libraries for R packages. We strongly recommend you allow users to install R package in a user library.