[R] Upgrading R using the "global library folder" strategy -, what do you think about it?

[R P Herrold]

On Mon, 26 Apr 2010, Marshall Feldman wrote:

> So why not have the appropriate 
> scripts ask a few questions upon the first installation of R (e.g., "Do you 
> want to configure R with a "global" library for packages to make future 
> upgrading easier?") and at upgrade time ("Your previous version of R has a 
> "global" library; do you want the new version to use it?). I'd even go so far 
> as to have the shell script automatically call an R script to run 
> update.packages().

There is a large body of literature on this -- interactive 
questions of non-root users are useless; root user actiuons 
need to be scripted into the package management system 
acessible to automation to be scaleable, and to attain the 
needed administrator level permissions to make changed

> The point is that most users just want to upgrade, and the upgrade procedure 
> can and should (a) make this as seamless as possible and (b) allow those who 
> may want to run specialized versions of R opt out of the automatic procedure.

and computers in a environment that has to conform to a 
hard specification (think: pharma research for FDA report 
preparation; financial service firms) that the IT department 
manages, cannot tolerate such diversity

There is no easy answer here, as 'one size cannot fit all'

-- Russ herrold