[R] Problem with install.packages(); getting out-of-date version.

[Joshua Wiley]

Hello Rolf,

This worked and installed 1.18-4 on both R 2.10.1 and 2.11.0 on Windows XP

local({r <- getOption("repos"); r["CRAN"] <-
"http://cran.stat.auckland.ac.nz/";options(repos=r)})
install.packages("spatstat")

At least on Windows, It looks like available.packages() is the
function used to retrieve a list of possible packages.  I believe this
list is what is installed based on.  When I run available.packages()
after setting the New Zealand mirror and weed through the output, I
see that package: spatstat is version 1.18-4.  I don't know if looking
at available.packages() might help you learn more about how packages
are chosen.

Josh

On Thu, May 6, 2010 at 4:59 PM, Rolf Turner <r.turner at auckland.ac.nz> wrote:
>
> I recently tried to install the latest version of spatstat, from CRAN,
> using the install.packages() function.  It proceeded to install version
> 1.17-5 of spatstat, although the current version is 1.18-4.
>
> Checking the CRAN mirror that I used (New Zealand) via Firefox, I found
> that version 1.18-4 is indeed present on CRAN.  I was able to download
> and install version 1.18-4 ``manually'' without difficulty.
>
> At first I thought that there must be something wrong with the NZ mirror,
> but after some prompting from the maintainer of this mirror, I tried
> others (Australia and Austria --- these being the first two on the list).
> Same thing happened.
>
> So the fault is not in our mirrors but in ourselves.  Something wrong
> with my system, or with the command I issued.  But what?
>
> The command:
>
>        install.packages("spatstat",lib="/Users/rturner/Temp")
>        # The ``Temp'' directory having been created for purposes of experimentation.
>
> The screen output from this command is:
>
> > --- Please select a CRAN mirror for use in this session ---
> > Loading Tcl/Tk interface ... done
> > trying URL 'http://cran.stat.auckland.ac.nz/bin/macosx/universal/contrib/2.10/spatstat_1.17-5.tgz'
> > Content type 'application/x-gzip' length 4067414 bytes (3.9 Mb)
> > opened URL
> > ==================================================
> > downloaded 3.9 Mb
> >
> >
> > The downloaded packages are in
> >       /var/folders/jf/jf8dJjGFE9i5Pjz0czKmhE+++TQ/-Tmp-//RtmpSpZagy/downloaded_packages
>
>
> My system:
>
> > sessionInfo()
> R version 2.10.1 (2009-12-14)
> i386-apple-darwin8.11.1
>
> locale:
> [1] en_NZ.UTF-8/en_NZ.UTF-8/C/C/en_NZ.UTF-8/en_NZ.UTF-8
>
> attached base packages:
> [1] datasets  utils     stats     graphics  grDevices methods   base
>
> other attached packages:
> [1] misc_0.0-12    fortunes_1.3-7 MASS_7.3-5
>
>
> Would up-dating to R 2.11.0 help?  Why should that be necessary?
>
> Where/how is install.packages() finding the out-of-date version?
>
> Any insight appreciated.
>
>        cheers,
>
>                Rolf Turner
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--
Joshua Wiley
Senior in Psychology
University of California, Riverside
http://www.joshuawiley.com/