[Rd] package installation order

[Prof Brian Ripley]

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

> Professor Ripley,
>
>> 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.
>
> This is probably a better option for me given that my source files are a
> little out of date. I couldn't get it to work though.
>
> I put the tar.gz files into a sub-directory (./src/contrib)
>
> I ran write_PACAKGES referencing that directory and type = "source" and
> verbose = TRUE. No error messages were given and it resulted in PACKAGES
> and PACKAGES.gz files that appeared to have all the right info in it.
>
> I figured out the package names by parsing the names of the tar.gz
> files.
>
> I then ran
>
>   install.packages(pckList[1:3],
>      repos = "/home/max/tmp/r-2.5.1-pkgs-updated/src/contrib",
>      contriburl = "/home/max/tmp/r-2.5.1-pkgs-updated/src/contrib",
>      type = "source")

It does say 'URL(s)', hence

repos = "file:///home/max/tmp/r-2.5.1-pkgs-updated"

is I think all you need.  Here's a (working) example local to me:

> install.packages("yags", repos="file:///data/ftp/pub/RWin")


>
> No packages were installed and I had the warnings:
>
> Warning: unable to access index for repository
> /home/max/tmp/r-2.5.1-pkgs-updated/src/contrib
> Warning message:
> packages 'Cairo', 'Design', 'ElemStatLearn' are not available in:
> install.packages(pckList[1:3], repos =
> "/home/max/tmp/r-2.5.1-pkgs-updated/src/contrib",
>
> (those particular packages are in ./src/contrib.) I also tried different
> variations of using the file names etc.
>
> I'm assuming that I don't have a proper repository. Am I missing
> something obvious here and/or is there some documentation on what the
> elements of a repository are?

There is, in the R-admin manual.

> Thanks again,
>
> 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