[R] upgrading to 1.5.0/uninstalling 1.4.1 on Linux

[Jari Oksanen]

rajiv.prasad at charter.net said:
> 1. I'd like to get pointers as how to set up my own RPM build from R
> sources  (1.5.0 for now, later versions in future).

The easiest alternative is to wait for rpm's to appear at CRAN...
However, it is not too complicated to build your own RPM form sources. I
guess the most certain and reliable source of information is 
http://www.rpm.org/. 

In principle, you need only the source files (R-*.tgz files) and
then you have to write your SPECS file. This would be easier if the
SPECS file of previous version were available at CRAN (hint), so that
you could edit that SPECS file to work with a new version. In the
luckiest case, you need to change only version (and release) numbers on
the first lines:

%define ver     1.5.0

and it may work magically. Or fail just as mysteriously.

Of course, everything must be in their correct places for rpm to work
(spec file in SPECS/, source archive in SOURCES/, and you need all tools
(Fortran compiler is not in default installation), and you need 
sufficient permissions.

I wouldn't try, though, since I rely on R folks to do better work than 
I would do, and I anticipate complications.

rajiv.prasad at charter.net said:
> 2. How would I handle installation/uninstallation of contributed
> packages?   Is it possible to build RPMs for them too?

see ?update.packages.

You can build rpm's (they do that at CRAN), but update.packages etc will 
be easier.

cheers, jari oksanen
-- 
Jari Oksanen -- Dept Biology, Univ Oulu, 90014 Oulu, Finland
Ph. +358 8 5531526, cell +358 40 5136529, fax +358 8 5531061
email jari.oksanen at oulu.fi, homepage http://cc.oulu.fi/~jarioksa/


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