[Rd] install.packages question / suggestion

[Thomas Stabla]

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.  

This could be realised by using a (not existing) "force = TRUE" argument 
to install.packages().

Thomas Stabla