[Rd] MacOS X: update.packages(type="mac.binary") fails (PR#7831)

[jari.oksanen at oulu.fi]

Full_Name: Jari Oksanen
Version: R 2.1.0
OS: MacOS 10.3.9
Submission from: (NULL) (130.231.102.145)


For various reasons (which need not be expanded here) I have tried to update my
long neglected R in MacOS X using handy command line tool update.packages()
using readily available binaries of contributed packages at CRAN. However, this
fails with message saying that packages xxxx_*_tar.gz is not found at the server
(HTTP error 404). Obviously, the package name is expanded wrongly as the binary
packages for MacOS X have type *.tgz. However, this seems not be the problem,
but there are two other problems:

1. update.packages does not transfer the value of 'type' to the next function
install.packages, but install.packages uses the value of getOption("pkgType")
which seems to be "source" in CRAN binary of MacOS X (contrary to documentation
at ?options). 

2. If this is corrected, or first set options(pkgType="mac.binary"), the update
fails for missing function .install.macbinary(). 

The first problem is easy to correct:

--- update.packages.R   2005-05-03 17:13:36.000000000 +0300
+++ jarioksa.update.packages.R  2005-05-03 17:13:58.000000000 +0300
@@ -59,5 +59,5 @@
         install.packages(update[, "Package"], instlib, contriburl =
contriburl,
             method = method, available = available, destdir = destdir,
-            installWithVers = installWithVers, type)
+            installWithVers = installWithVers, type = type)
     }
 }


For the second, problem, I don't know what to do. grepping
R-patched_2005-05-03.tar.gz source found only one instance of
.install.macbinary(): the failed call in
R-patched/src/library/utils/R/packages2.R. I couldn't find the definition of the
function.

Do I really have to use GUI? Uh.

cheers, jari oksanen