[R] HTML help index generation problem with R under Windows

[Prof Brian Ripley]

On Wed, 9 Feb 2005 john.gavin at ubs.com wrote:

> I recently encountered a similar problem to
> http://www.mail-archive.com/r-help@stat.math.ethz.ch/msg31960.html
>
> One conclusion from that thread seems to be
> that if XP users need to update the index,
> after installing a package,
> they have to install R into a directory
> for which they have got write access,
> either a network or local drive.

That's stated in the rw-FAQ Q3.3: please read the relevant FAQ before 
posting as the posting guide asks.

> This is in order to update the files
> 'C:Program Files\R\rw2001\doc\html\search\index.txt' and
> 'C:Program Files\R\rw2001\doc\html\packages.html'
>
> Most R users in my institution do not have admin rights
> to their local drive, for security reasons,
> and software has to be installed on the local drives,
> not on remote servers (presumably for networking efficiency).

That is not necessary, especially not in R-devel (2.1.0 to be) unless 
your network is very slow (slower than USB 1.1, for example).

> If just these two files were moved to an area where
> the user has write permission, such as a remote server,
> is it possible to tell R to look for them there?

No.  The relative location is hardcoded into the other HTML files and the 
search engine.

> Otherwise, it seems that users
> who dont have admin permission (the majority),
> will not be able to update their 'index.txt' file,
> after installing packages.
> While this isnt a major issue,
> suggestions for a workaround would be welcome.

Get packages installed by those who do have permission (which was the 
solution given by Uwe Ligges in that thread).

-- 
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