Installing R on Ubuntu

The statistical analysis and data mining package R is a frustratingly difficult piece of software to find help for in Google (it reminds me of trying to find this band on Napster back in the day).
Once I finally found it, the installation instructions for Ubuntu are less than direct. So, here's how I installed R on Ubuntu 12.04.
Firstly get the repository SSL key and import it in to apt.

gpg --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-key E084DAB9
gpg -a --export E084DAB9 | sudo apt-key add -

Next edit your sources list...

gksudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

...and add the repository to the bottom. Other sources are available.

deb http://cran.ma.imperial.ac.uk/bin/linux/ubuntu precise/

Then install R.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install r-base

Now you can get an R prompt with.

R

Or create a shell script with a shebang.

#!/usr/bin/Rscript
print("shebang works")