> -----Original Message----- > From: r-help-boun...@r-project.org [mailto:r-help-boun...@r-project.org] > On Behalf Of Tal Galili > Sent: Sunday, April 25, 2010 9:40 AM > To: r-help@r-project.org > Subject: [R] Upgrading R using the "global library folder" strategy - what > do you think about it? > > Hello dear R-help mailing list, > > The other day I published a blog post (with some R code) to help R-users > who > want to implement a simpler upgrading strategy for R (under windows - but > probably the same will be true of mac OS, I am not sure about Linux). > > This e-mail has 3 goals: (a) To share, (b) to get feedback, and (c) to > propose to implement this strategy to R's core. > * > * > *a) Share* > The idea of this upgrading strategy is to save steps in upgrading. When > one > wishes to upgrade R, instead of doing the following three steps: > 1) download new R and install > 2) copy the "library" content from the old R to the new R > 3) upgrade all of the packages (in the library folder) to the new version > of > R. > You could instead just have steps 1 and 3, and skip step 2. > How? > By using a "global" library which will reside outside (and besides) of the > normal R installation folder. > Here is the link to the post where I explain how to do this with R running > under windows (and also supplied some R code to help with this move): > http://www.r-statistics.com/2010/04/changing-your-r-upgrading-strategy- > and-the-r-code-to-do-it-on-windows/ > (Credit: this strategy was proposed by Dirk > Eddelbuettel<http://dirk.eddelbuettel.com/blog/>, > to whom I give my thanks) > > *b) Feedback* > I would love to know if someone here can suggest when this strategy might > not be the best one. > I also welcome any suggestions for improving the code I wrote for helping > users make the transition to this upgrading system. > > *c) R core implementation ?!* > I hope I am not being rude (or jumping into any open doors) in asking this > but... > What do you think about implementing this strategy into the R basic > installation? > > > > With honest respect and care, > Tal
Tal, I looked at your blog, and your instructions, and I guess that for Windows (which I use) I don't see the advantage over using the R_LIBS environment variable as discussed in the R-FAQ for Windows. You need to initially copy current user installed librarys to your R_LIBS directory (similar to your instructions), but once that is done, all you need to do to upgrade is install a new version of R and then run update.packages() from the new R installation. And for the latest versions of R and Windows, it seems something like that is done by default if you don't have R_LIBS or R_LIBS_USER defined. Dan Daniel Nordlund Bothell, WA USA ______________________________________________ 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.
