[R] installing package with version number using namespaces & dynamic library

[Prof Brian Ripley]

On Wed, 4 Aug 2004, Matthias Burger wrote:

> I wonder whether a package with namespace & dynamic library can be installed 
> with the version number attached, ie. with the argument --with-package-versions. 
> Is this currently possible?

I've just successfully done this with package tree, so yes.

gannet% R CMD INSTALL --with-package-versions tree_1.0-16.tar.gz
gannet% R
...
> library(tree)
> library(tree, version="1.0-16")

both work.

The crucial piece of code in namespace loading is

        # load any dynamic libraries
        for (lib in nsInfo$dynlibs)
            library.dynam(lib, package, package.lib)

which is *not* the call to library.dynam you quote.  I think you have a
call to library.dynam in your .onLoad, rather than/as well as using the
useDynLib directive.  .onLoad *is* run with the versioned package name as 
its `pkgname' argument, and we should document that.


> Using R 1.9.1 on Debian 3.0 I encounter a problem when trying to load a package 
> installed with
> 
> R91 CMD INSTALL --with-package-versions -l /mnt/local/R/R-1.9.x-libs-EpiR RIO
> 
> in R started with
> R91 --vanilla
> 
>  > .libPaths()
> [1] "/mnt/local/R/R-1.9.x-libs"          "/mnt/local/R/R-1.9.x-libs-BioC"
> [3] "/mnt/local/R/R-1.9.x-libs-EpiR"     "/mnt/local/R/R-1.9.1/lib/R/library"
> 
> either
>  > library("RIO")
> Error in library.dynam(pkg, pkg, lib) : shared library 'RIO_1.4.0' not found
> Error: .onLoad failed in loadNamespace
> Error in library("RIO") : package/namespace load failed
> or
>  > library("RIO_1.4.0")
> Error in library.dynam(pkg, pkg, lib) : shared library 'RIO_1.4.0' not found
> Error: .onLoad failed in loadNamespace
> Error in library("RIO_1.4.0") : package/namespace load failed
> 
> fail.
> 
> Without the '--with-package-versions' option the installed package loads without 
> problem with the call
> library("RIO")
> 
> 
> file Namesapce defines (amoung other directives):
> 
> useDynLib(RIO)
> 
> I also tryed
> useDynLib("RIO_1.4.0")
> to no avail. But RIO/libs contains the file RIO.so anyway.

[As it should.]

> I checked in 'Writing R Extensions" section 'Package name spaces' but did not 
> find an answer.

-- 
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