[Rd] install.packages question / suggestion

[Prof Brian Ripley]

On Fri, 22 Oct 2004, Prof Brian Ripley wrote:

> On Fri, 22 Oct 2004, Thomas Stabla wrote:
> 
> > when trying to write an R-file, which automatically installs and updates a 
> > given list of packages, 
> 
> Many of us already have scripts of that sort.
> 
> > I had two problems with install.packages()
> > 
> > 1) install.packages("<package>") will install <package>, no matter if 
> >    <package> has already been installed.
> > 2) the readline() at the end of install.packages, which asks the user, if 
> >    the downloaded files should be deleted, makes it difficult to 
> >    delete packages automatically after installation (I must admit, I'm not 
> >    quite familiar with R CMD BATCH)
> > 
> > 
> > Question/Request:
> > Is the behaviour in 1) intended?
> 
> Most definitely.  I might want to install it in another library, or to 
> reinstall it under the current version of R.  It is very easy to tailor 
> the input to meet your needs, as update.packages() does.
> 
> There is install.packages() to help you here.

oops, installed.packages().

-- 
Brian D. Ripley,                  ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk
Professor of Applied Statistics,  http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/
University of Oxford,             Tel:  +44 1865 272861 (self)
1 South Parks Road,                     +44 1865 272866 (PA)
Oxford OX1 3TG, UK                Fax:  +44 1865 272595