[R] bug in installed.packages...

[Martin Maechler]

>>>>> "MM" == Martin Maechler <maechler at stat.math.ethz.ch>
>>>>>     on Thu, 3 Jun 2004 09:36:36 +0200 writes:
 
    [things about a bug in installed.packages() ]

	  <.............>

    MM> It also seems to me that the value of lib.loc (namely
    MM> "sfsmisc") at that moment is wrong as well - which would
    MM> point to a problem in the update.packages() function...

Looking at the help page for update.packages()  [blush !! ;-)]
pretty quickly revealed the reason why the bug in 
   installed.packages()
has very rarely triggered :

Robert called update.packages("mgcv")
which is a so called "user error",
since the first argument of update.packages() {and
installed.packages() as well} is `lib.loc' and not 'pkgs'.

In other words, you can't give a package name as argument to these,
but arguably you should get a better error message when you do.

Martin