[Rd] package installation order

[Prof Brian Ripley]

On Wed, 14 Nov 2007, Kuhn, Max wrote:

> I have roughly 80 or so packages sources. These were obtained by taking
> a snapshot of certain CRAN packages a few months ago using
>
>   install.packages(
>      pkgs = pckNames,
>      destdir = "/home/max",
>      repos = "http://cran.r-project.org"
>      dependencies = c("Depends", "Imports", "Suggests"))
>
> We need to install these versions of the packages across a few different
> architectures/systems (linux, solaris, 32- and 64-bit). Right now, we
> are constrained to version 2.5.1 (I know, I know).
>
> Right now, I'd use
>
>   tarList <- list.files()
>   tarList <- grep(".tar.gz", tarList, fixed = TRUE, value = TRUE)
>   install.packages (tarList, repos = NULL)

You need the information from available.packages() to do the ordering, so 
you need a non-NULL repository.  This works if you convert your local 
collection into a local repository. You will need a PACKAGES file, but 
tools::write_PACKAGES can re-create one for you.

There are also dependency tools in package tools and on BioC.

> to install, but the package dependencies are ignored. For example, XML
> gets installed after other packages that depend on it.
>
> I've looked through ?install.packages and I have tried using
>
>   install.packages (
>      tarList, repos = NULL,
>      dependencies = c("Depends", "Imports", "Suggests"))
>
> but this did not appear to change the install ordering.
>
> Is there a simpler way to do this rather than trial and error?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Max

-- 
Brian D. Ripley,                  ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk
Professor of Applied Statistics,  http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/
University of Oxford,             Tel:  +44 1865 272861 (self)
1 South Parks Road,                     +44 1865 272866 (PA)
Oxford OX1 3TG, UK                Fax:  +44 1865 272595