[R] (no subject)

[Roger Bivand]

On Thu, 8 Jan 2004, W. Beldman wrote:

> Recently I tried to install a package in R version 1.8.1 for Windows. First I 
> un".tar.gz"ed it and ".zip"ed it back in to be able to use the option Install 
> package(s) from local zip files...
> 
> Unfortunately tis error message appeared:
> Error in unpackPkg(pkgs[i], pkgnames[i], lib, installWithVers) : 
>          Malformed bundle DESCRIPTION file, no Contains field
> 
> 
> It's correct that the DESCRIPTION file does not have a Contains field,
> but I can't figure out why it's mandatory and what values it may
> contain. The manual Writing R Extensions doesn't even mention this field
> in paragraph 1.1.1
> 
> Any clues how I can make this package running?  Note that it's not CRAN
> but self written, but as I'm told it have worked before (probably in a
> Linux environment).

You have taken a *source* package, changed it from a tar.gz archive file
to a zip archive file, but are trying to install it as a Windows 
zip archive of a *binary* package. See the R Windows FAQ:

http://cran.r-project.org/bin/windows/rw-FAQ.html#Packages 

or Help > FAQ on R for Windows

within R on Windows

To proceed, you can install the tools needed to make and install a binary
package from a source package under Windows. This is documented with links 
in the FAQ under "Can I install packages (libraries) in this version?" The 
important file "readme.packages" is in the directory R lives in, 
usually rw1081 for the current version.

Roger


> 
> W. Beldman
> 

-- 
Roger Bivand
Economic Geography Section, Department of Economics, Norwegian School of
Economics and Business Administration, Breiviksveien 40, N-5045 Bergen,
Norway. voice: +47 55 95 93 55; fax +47 55 95 93 93
e-mail: Roger.Bivand at nhh.no