[R] Modyfing PATH in Windows Installer for R

[Gabor Grothendieck]

Chris Jackson <chris.jackson <at> imperial.ac.uk> writes:

: 
: Henrik Andersson wrote:
: > Just a small suggestion since Windows have a file system not designed 
: > for command line use...
: > 
: > Would it be possible to add the possibility of automatically 
: > adding/modifying the path to the R executables in the windows installer 
: > program?
: 
: After asking the same question on R-devel a few months ago, I
: investigated the possibility.  This would be useful to me, as it saves
: the trouble of modifying the path every time a new version of R comes
: out.
: 
: As far as I could tell, the installer that R for Windows uses
: (InnoSetup) cannot modify the PATH out of the box, but it can do this
: via a third-party add-on script.   I was doubtful whether it was worth
: adding such a script to the R sources, given the small benefit obtained.
: 
: The ideal solution seems to be what's done in Mac OS X, that is, to
: store a permanent path to the current R version as a symlink, and then
: just changing where the symlink points to when R is upgraded.
: Unfortunately Windows doesn't do symlinks.
: 
: Chris
: (probably a little esoteric for R-help)

Although not really recommended it actually is possible to do this in
Windows.  See the annoyances.org link in the reply at the end of:

http://www.mail-archive.com/r-devel@stat.math.ethz.ch/msg05259.html

Be warned that if you do this, deleting the Windows "symlink" will
delete the underlying folder too!  You have to disable it by 
reversing the steps you took to create it if you want to get rid
of the "symlink" without destroying the underlying folder.