[R] upgrade to 2.5

[Gabor Grothendieck]

On 5/2/07, Robert A LaBudde <ral at lcfltd.com> wrote:
> At 01:41 PM 5/2/2007, you wrote:
> >On 5/2/07, Sundar Dorai-Raj <sundar.dorai-raj at pdf.com> wrote:
> > >
> > >
> > > Iasonas Lamprianou said the following on 5/2/2007 8:25 AM:
> > > > Hi I am using R version 2.4.1. How can I upgrade to version 2.5
> > without having to install all the packages again?
> > > > Thanks
> > > > Jason
> > > >
> > >
> > > You may find the following link relevant.
> > >
> > > http://finzi.psych.upenn.edu/R/Rhelp02a/archive/75359.html
> > >
> >
> >if you use Windows XP.
>
> This link was useful to me, as I am new to R. (Win2000, R-2.5.0)
>
> What I have been doing is using a file compare utility (Beyond
> Compare in my case) to move files in the old "library" directory to
> the new one, if the files are missing in the new one. Then I perform
> an update.packages command.
>
> This procedure appears to work without problem.
>
> It would seem much preferable to have all packages saved in an
> installation-independent directory, instead of a "library" directory
> under R's installation directory. Then, of course, no update would be
> necessary.

You can do that but there is the limitation that the old version of
R will become unusable with the common library as newer versions of
packages, unable to work with the older version of R, get installed.  If each
version of R has its own library then you won't likely have that problem.