[R] unload & reload a (new version of a) package

[Harte, Thomas P]

update: this phenomenon disappears if i do a straight install *without*
package versioning, i.e. 

C:\packages>c:\R\R-2.6.1\bin\R CMD BUILD foo_1.0
[creates foo_1.0.tar.gz]
C:\packages>c:\R\R-2.6.1\bin\R CMD INSTALL -l c:/library foo_1.0.tar.gz

i can update the package, re-build and re-install and load it into the
existing
R session with a call to 'library(foo, lib.loc="c:/library")'

when i posted, i had been doing things *with versioning* switched on:

C:\packages>c:\R\R-2.6.1\bin\R CMD BUILD foo_1.0
[creates foo_1.0.tar.gz]
C:\packages>c:\R\R-2.6.1\bin\R CMD INSTALL --with-package-versions -l
c:/library foo_1.0.tar.gz

and loading it into the existing R session with 'library(foo,
lib.loc="c:/library", version="1.0")'.

so the problem seemes to exist if i install a newer version of the
package this way, thereby clobbering the old version
foo_1.0 in the process. however, if I copy the source tree for foo_1.0
and make a *completely new version*
foo_1.1, say, and install --with-package-versions:

C:\packages>c:\R\R-2.6.1\bin\R CMD BUILD foo_1.1 
C:\packages>c:\R\R-2.6.1\bin\R CMD INSTALL --with-package-versions -l
c:/library foo_1.1.zip 
library(foo, lib.loc="c:/library", version="1.1")

then i can successfully load version 1.1 

something is possibly wrong somewhere with versioning, or with my
package.
either way, i can live without versioning switched on and just clobber
versions of the
library foo with the updated package foo.


-----Original Message-----
From: r-help-bounces at r-project.org [mailto:r-help-bounces at r-project.org]
On Behalf Of Harte, Thomas P
Sent: Monday, January 14, 2008 6:49 PM
To: r-help at r-project.org
Subject: [R] unload & reload a (new version of a) package

i'm putting the final touches on a package that i'm developing and i
noticed that if i detach the package, and then re-build & re-install it
(using R
CMD)
then I can't get the newer version of the package to load in the
existing R session (i have to close it out and start a new session, then
the newer 
version of the package is loaded). 

looking through the source of 'detach'  i see :

      .Call("R_lazyLoadDBflush", paste(libpath, "/R/", pkgname, 
            ".rdb", sep = ""), PACKAGE = "base")

is there some absolute way similar to the above to flush the package db 
and ensure that a newer version of the package can be loaded into the
existing R session? detach calls .Last.lib and seems to go through the
motions of purging the loaded package; why, then, is the package still
lurking around in the existing R session?

it's not a big deal; it's only a minor pain having to re-start an R
session. i'm more interesting in why this is happening.

cheers,

thomas.   



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