[Rd] Package Installation in RGui (PR#7262)

[Uwe Ligges]

Under Windows, you cannot update / install  a package, if the package 
has been loaded, because Windows locks the dll. This is a FAQ.

Uwe Ligges



Gorjanc Gregor wrote:

> Hello!
> 
> I have just encountered the same situation as Heather and also Paul Gilbert at
> 
> http://tolstoy.newcastle.edu.au/R/devel/05/02/2095.html
> 
> I went into install.packages() in current release as well as in R-devel and
> there is really no problem with \ or /. However, I also had the same warning
> 
> 
>>install.packages("RODBC")
> 
> [... snip ...]
> Delete downloaded files (y/N)? y
> 
> updating HTML package descriptions
> Warning message: 
> unable to move temp installation 'N:/Ovce/Programi/R/rw2001/library\file27583/RODBC' to 'N:/Ovce/Programi/R/rw2001/library/RODBC' 
> 
> The warning is issued from this part of install.packages()
> 
> if (ret == 0) {
>                 ## Move the new package to the install lib and
>                 ## remove our temp dir
>                 ret <- file.rename(file.path(tmpDir, curPkg), instPath)
>                 if(!ret) warning("unable to move temp installation ",
>                                  sQuote(file.path(tmpDir, curPkg)),
>                                  " to ",
>                                  sQuote(instPath), call. = FALSE)
>             } else {
>                 ## !! Can't revert to old 'zip.unpack' as it would
>                 ## !! potentially leave cruft from a bundle in there
>                 stop("Can not remove prior installation of package ",
>                      sQuote(curPkg), call. = FALSE)
>             }
> 
> "Problem" lies in 
> 
> ret <- file.rename(file.path(tmpDir, curPkg), instPath)
> 
> I went through the whole function "by hand" and at first the above line
> didn't moved tmpDir to instPath. I tried several times and after a while
> it was successfull. It is strange that it happens only with some packages
> i.e. in my case with RODBC and car. I also noted that line above takes 
> quite a lot of time to "accomplish" its work. It actually causes R to 
> freeze for a moment. If I launched
> 
> file.rename(file.path(tmpDir, curPkg), instPath)
> 
> move was done in a moment. I know, that this comment is not the answer 
> to the problem. However, someone might come with that.
> 
> One more thing. I have R installed on networked disk. I assume that Heather 
> does also, since disk letter is H. On the other hand, Paul reported problems
> with C disk.
> 
> Windows XP SP1
> R 2.0.1
> 
> On Tue, 5 Oct 2004 Heather.Turner at warwick.ac.uk wrote:
> 
>>Full_Name: Heather Turner
>>Version: 2.0.0
>>OS: Windows NT
>>Submission from: (NULL) (137.205.8.2)
>>
>>
>>I tried using the Packages menu to install the gam package and get the following
>>output:
>>
>>
>>>local({a <- CRAN.packages()
>>
>>+ install.packages(select.list(a[,1],,TRUE), .libPaths()[1], available=a,
>>dependencies=TRUE)})
>>trying URL `http://cran.r-project.org/bin/windows/contrib/2.0/PACKAGES'
>>Content type `text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1' length 21246 bytes
>>opened URL
>>downloaded 20Kb
>>
>>trying URL `http://cran.r-project.org/bin/windows/contrib/2.0/gam_0.92.zip'
>>Content type `application/zip' length 224167 bytes
>>opened URL
>>downloaded 218Kb
>>
>>package 'gam' successfully unpacked and MD5 sums checked
>>
>>Delete downloaded files (y/N)? y
>>
>>Warning message:
>>unable to move temp installation 'H:/rw2000/library\file15762/gam' to
>>'H:/rw2000/library/gam'
>>
>>I get the same message if I opt to delete the downloaded files and the
>>same problem if I try to install from a downloaded .zip file instead -
>>not really surprising as seems to "unpack" file okay, but loses the
>>temporary file. As the syntax of the file path for the temporary file is
>>incorrect, I'm assuming this is a bug in install.packages or one of the
>>functions it calls...
> 
> 
> Since you _incorrectly_ assume that the syntax is incorrect, the rest of
> your assumption is incorrect. As the FAQ asks, please don't speculate
> about things you are not expert about, but stick to facts. Also as the
> FAQ asks, don't misuse R-bugs for things you do not know _for sure_ are
> bugs in R.
> 
> FYI, Windows accepts both /and \ in file paths, including a mixture. If
> your speculation was correct install.packages() would work for no one, and
> do you seriously think that such a bug would go unreported and unfixed.
> 
> We have seen this once before, and it was a Windows bug solved by updating
> Windows to the latest set of patches. Since you have not reported a
> precise version of Windows, it is hard for us to know what you were using,
> but if you mean NT4.0, that is rather old (last Service Pack five years
> ago I read yesterday).
>