[R] warnings and errors with R CMD INSTALL

[Dirk Eddelbuettel]

thomas <tom_hoary <at> web.de> writes:
> Hello,
> 
> unfortunately I had to compile latest version of R-2.0.1 by myself. I'd
> rather would prefer vendors binaries but since the current version of
> Ubuntu defaults to 1.9.x I had to compile R on my own in order to be up
> to date!

You could have gotten R 2.0.1 from Debian. Ubuntu is a Debian derivative, and 
that is a feature you can take advantage of:  Debian packages should just work.

> So far, everything went fine and R runs smoothly. Unfortunately I am not
> able to use R CMD INSTALL command to install add-on packages.
> 
> I followed RNews 3/3 and used:
> 
> 1. R CMD INSTALL package_version.tar.gz 

Did you do that as root? 

> and
> 
> 2.options(CRAN="http://umfragen.sowi.uni-mainz.de/CRAN/")
> install.packages("pkg1". "pkg2")

Should be    install.packages(c("pkg1", "pkg2"))    You seem to have 
misunderstood how to create a vector on the fly.

> Both approaches end up i.e.:
> 
> WARNING: invalid package 'pkg1.tar.gz'
> ERROR: no packages specified
> 
> Well, R administration manual and RNews give some examples which I took
> as basis to install further packages.
> I, as suggested in RNews and administration manual alike, omitted the -l
> option, since I want to stay with default library location!

Which requires root rights.

> Obviously I am stuck in a situation not covered by the docs! Well, most

Not sure I agree here.

> likely I misunderstand something, can anyone help out with this?

Hope this helps, Dirk