[R] help(package)->sink()

[Gabor Grothendieck]

Spencer Graves <spencer.graves <at> pdf.com> writes:

: 
: I wanted to direct packageInfo to a file, so I could add comments, 
: e.g., in MS Word.  The following command stored the desired information 
: in an object: 
: 
:       mclustInfo <- help(package="mclust")
: 
:       Then "mclustInfo" displays it on my screen.  To direct it to a 
: file, I tried the following: 
: 
:       sink("mclust.txt")
:       mclustInfo
:       sink()
: 
:       This sequence created an empty file "mclust.txt", while displaying 
: mclustInfo on my screen.  After a few more failed attempts, I gave up 
: trying to be clever and copied the text from the screen into Word. 

In addition to your copy and paste solution:

1. You could intercept the file.show output by redefining the pager:

   a. create a one line file called mypager.bat in \ with this line:

      type %1 > /mclust.txt

   (with appropriate modifications if you are using UNIX).

   b. In R issue these commands:

      old <- options()
      options(pager = "/mypager.bat")
      help(package = "mclust")
      options(old) # reset options back if finished

2. Don't use R but go right to the DESCRIPTION and INDEX
   files.  getwd("library/mclust") should show you where
   to find them.

3. If you don't care about the formatting:

      sink("/mclust.txt")
      writeLines(unlist(help(package="mclust")$info))
      sink()

4. You could modify packageInfo.print adding a file= argument.