[R] build CONTENTS or 00Index.html without installing whole package

[Jonathan Baron]

Replying to myself again, I've now figured out how to build all the
help files, including 00Index.html, without actually building the
package.  The point is to construct a complete list of all html help
files for searching.

The one thing I cannot figure out is how to build the index of all
packages which (for me) is at
/usr/share/doc/R-2.9.0/html/packages.html
Apparently this requires something other than DESCRIPTION and
00Index.html files in each package, which is all I have.

Here is the script:

#!/bin/bash
# makes indexable help files for R packages, including pdf vignettes
# usage inst.bat "[files]" --- quotes needed for wildcards like "*.tar.gz"
for PKG in `ls $1`
  do
    tar xfz $PKG
    PK=`echo $PKG | /bin/sed -e 's/.tar.gz//' | cut -d"_" -f1`
    echo $PK
    mkdir -pv /usr/lib/R/library/$PK
    mkdir -pv /usr/lib/R/library/$PK/html
# copy description (which contains version number)
    cp $PK/DESCRIPTION /usr/lib/R/library/$PK
# move vignettes if present
    if [ -d $PK/inst/doc ]; then
      mkdir -pv /usr/lib/R/library/$PK/doc
      cp $PK/inst/doc/* /usr/lib/R/library/$PK/doc
    fi
# make html files
    R CMD perl /usr/share/R/perl/build-help.pl --html /home/baron/$PK /usr/lib/R/library/
# make indices
    Rscript --vanilla -e "tools:::.writePkgIndices('$PK','/usr/lib/R/library/$PK')"
    rm -rf $PK
  done
# try to build package list, doesn't work
# Rscript --no-init-file --no-save -e "make.packages.html(packages=FALSE)"

-- 
Jonathan Baron, Professor of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania
Home page: http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~baron