Thanks Uwe, It may operate like that on most peoples machines, but either its not operating like that on mine. Or I have another problem :-(
As u can see from my code below I've run update.packages(checkBuilt=TRUE) and my 'private' library is in my LibPaths()... However when I try to load the foreign package I get an error message telling me "package "foreign' was built before R 2.10.0: please re-install it". But then if I remove my private library from the search path I can load foreign....so this suggests the problem is with the foreign package in my 'private library'. Furthermore, if I look at the description file for foreign it claims to have been built for R package 2.9.2. (I've copied it below). I'm concluding the issue is with the foreign package in my private library since it claims to have been built for R 2.9.2 & I can get the package to load if I remove my private library from the library search path and laod the foreaign package from the base library. I'm then concluding the problem is due to it not updating since the description file claims it was built for R version 2.9.2 and due to the error message I'm getting ie "foreign' was built before R 2.10.0: please re-install it" BUT I'm happy to be proven wrong... I just can't think of what else the problem could be????? FOREIGN DESCRIPTION FILE Package: foreign Priority: recommended Version: 0.8-39 Date: 2010-01-03 Title: Read Data Stored by Minitab, S, SAS, SPSS, Stata, Systat, dBase, ... Depends: R (>= 2.6.0), stats Imports: methods, utils Maintainer: R-core <r-c...@r-project.org> Author: R-core members, Saikat DebRoy <sai...@stat.wisc.edu>, Roger Bivand <roger.biv...@nhh.no> and others: see COPYRIGHTS file in the sources. Description: Functions for reading and writing data stored by statistical packages such as Minitab, S, SAS, SPSS, Stata, Systat, ..., and for reading and writing .dbf (dBase) files. LazyLoad: yes License: GPL (>= 2) BugReports: http://bugs.r-project.org Packaged: 2010-01-03 10:24:13 UTC; ripley Repository: CRAN Date/Publication: 2010-01-03 14:06:04 Built: R 2.9.2; i386-pc-mingw32; 2010-01-03 23:21:40 UTC; windows Chris Howden Founding Partner Tricky Solutions Tricky Solutions 4 Tricky Problems Evidence Based Strategic Development, IP development, Data Analysis, Modelling, and Training (mobile) 0410 689 945 (fax / office) (+618) 8952 7878 ch...@trickysolutions.com.au -----Original Message----- From: Uwe Ligges [mailto:lig...@statistik.tu-dortmund.de] Sent: Wednesday, 20 October 2010 9:15 PM To: Chris Howden Cc: r-help Subject: Re: [R] is there a way to update both packages if they occur in 2 libraries? update.packages() updates all packages in all libraries listed in .libPaths() unless you specify an explicit library. It may happen that the version number has not changed and you just want to reinstall for your upgraded R. In that case use: update.packages(checkBuilt=TRUE) Best, Uwe Ligges On 20.10.2010 04:07, Chris Howden wrote: > Hi everyone, > > > > I've recently added a private library as a way to manage my R libraries. And > I did this by simply copying my old library to a new folder and then linking > this to R by setting my R_LIBS environmental variable in .Renviron. > > > > However I have run into a problem. > > > > When I update my packages it is not updating those that are current in the > base R library. > > > > This means I can't load packages that are included in base R, since R is > looking in my private library first and when it finds the package it tries > to use it. But it's an outdated version. > > > > The easiest solution I can think of is to update both libraries, but when I > run update.packages(lib.loc="private library location" ask = FALSE, > checkBuilt=TRUE) it's not updating them. > > > > So I was wondering if there is a way to update all packages that occur in > all libraries? > > > > > > (Note that I can think of other solutions to my problem, but they are all > time consuming and defeats the purpose of why I want a private library i.e. > it makes updating R easier since I don't need to copy over the library > folder each time nor update any environmental variables. So far the best > alternative I've come up with is to delete all the duplicate base R > libraries from my private library) > > > > If anyone is interested the code I used to understand my problem is below. > > > > > > Thanks everyone > > > > > > > >> update.packages(lib.loc="C:\\Program Files\\R\\library", ask = FALSE, > checkBuilt=TRUE) > > --- Please select a CRAN mirror for use in this session --- > > > >> update.packages(ask = FALSE, checkBuilt = TRUE) > > > > Foreign package won't load > >> library(foreign) > > Error: package 'foreign' was built before R 2.10.0: please re-install it > > > >> .libPaths() > > [1] "C:\\Program Files\\R\\library" "C:/PROGRA~1/R/R-212~1.0/library" > > > >> .libPaths("new") > > > >> .libPaths() > > [1] "C:/PROGRA~1/R/R-212~1.0/library" > > > > Foreign package will load > >> library(foreign) > > > > > > > > > > > > Chris Howden > > Founding Partner > > Tricky Solutions > > Tricky Solutions 4 Tricky Problems > > Evidence Based Strategic Development, IP development, Data Analysis, > Modelling, and Training > > (mobile) 0410 689 945 > > (fax / office) (+618) 8952 7878 > > ch...@trickysolutions.com.au > > [[alternative HTML version deleted]] > > > > > ______________________________________________ > R-help@r-project.org mailing list > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help > PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html > and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code. ______________________________________________ R-help@r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.