[R] Error with installed.packages with R 3.4.0 on Windows

[peter dalgaard]

Yes, we noticed this in the last days of the code freeze before release and shied away from inserting a workaround, partly because we couldn't see what the root of the problem might be. 

For the purposes of installed.packages it is relatively harmless to treat the NA condition as FALSE, since it is just a matter of whether a cache is valid. I.e., it might cause an unnecessary cache rebuild. For other situations it might be more of an issue.

The workaround (NA -> FALSE, basically) is in place in R-patched and R-devel.

-pd

> On 28 Apr 2017, at 07:47 , Thierry Onkelinx <thierry.onkelinx at inbo.be> wrote:
> 
> We have several computers with the same problem.
> 
> Op 28 apr. 2017 7:25 a.m. schreef "Jean-Claude Arbaut" <arbautjc at gmail.com>:
> 
> Hello,
> 
> I am currently getting a strange error when I call installed.packages():
> 
> Error in if (file.exists(dest) && file.mtime(dest) > file.mtime(lib) &&  :
>  missing value where TRUE/FALSE needed
> Calls: installed.packages
> 
> 
> I am working with R 3.4.0 on Windows. I didn't get this error with R 3.3.3.
> Apparently, file.mtime() is returning NA well applied to a directory, and
> this causes the entire && expression to be NA, then the "if" fails because
> it needs either T or F.
> The source of "installed.packages" seems to be roughly the same as in R
> 3.3.3, so I wonder if there have been other changes in R, maybe the logical
> operators, that would make this function fail.
> 
> Any idea?
> 
> Best regards,
> 
> Jean-Claude Arbaut
> 
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> 
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-- 
Peter Dalgaard, Professor,
Center for Statistics, Copenhagen Business School
Solbjerg Plads 3, 2000 Frederiksberg, Denmark
Phone: (+45)38153501
Office: A 4.23
Email: pd.mes at cbs.dk  Priv: PDalgd at gmail.com