[R] is there a way to update both packages if they occur in 2 libraries?

Wed Oct 20 13:59:44 CEST 2010

Thanks Uwe,

It may operate like that on most peoples machines, but either its not
operating like that on mine. Or I have another problem :-(

As u can see from my code below I've run update.packages(checkBuilt=TRUE)
and my 'private' library is in my LibPaths()...

However when I try to load the foreign package I get an error message
telling me "package "foreign' was built before R 2.10.0: please re-install
it". But then if I remove my private library from the search path I can
load foreign....so this suggests the problem is with the foreign package
in my 'private library'.

Furthermore, if I look at the description file for foreign it claims to
have been built for R package 2.9.2. (I've copied it below).

I'm concluding the issue is with the foreign package in my private library
since it claims to have been built for R 2.9.2 & I can get the package to
load if I remove my private library from the library search path and laod
the foreaign package from the base library.
	I'm then concluding the problem is due to it not updating since
the description file 	claims it was built for R version 2.9.2 and due to
the error message I'm getting ie 	"foreign' was built before R
2.10.0: please re-install it"

BUT I'm happy to be proven wrong... I just can't think of what else the
problem could be?????

FOREIGN DESCRIPTION FILE
Package: foreign
Priority: recommended
Version: 0.8-39
Date: 2010-01-03
Title: Read Data Stored by Minitab, S, SAS, SPSS, Stata, Systat, dBase,
        ...
Depends: R (>= 2.6.0), stats
Imports: methods, utils
Maintainer: R-core <R-core at r-project.org>
Author: R-core members, Saikat DebRoy <saikat at stat.wisc.edu>, Roger
        Bivand <Roger.Bivand at nhh.no> and others: see COPYRIGHTS file in
        the sources.
Description: Functions for reading and writing data stored by
        statistical packages such as Minitab, S, SAS, SPSS, Stata,
        Systat, ..., and for reading and writing .dbf (dBase) files.
LazyLoad: yes
License: GPL (>= 2)
BugReports: http://bugs.r-project.org
Packaged: 2010-01-03 10:24:13 UTC; ripley
Repository: CRAN
Date/Publication: 2010-01-03 14:06:04
Built: R 2.9.2; i386-pc-mingw32; 2010-01-03 23:21:40 UTC; windows

Chris Howden
Founding Partner
Tricky Solutions
Tricky Solutions 4 Tricky Problems
Evidence Based Strategic Development, IP development, Data Analysis,
Modelling, and Training
(mobile) 0410 689 945
(fax / office) (+618) 8952 7878
chris at trickysolutions.com.au

-----Original Message-----
From: Uwe Ligges [mailto:ligges at statistik.tu-dortmund.de]
Sent: Wednesday, 20 October 2010 9:15 PM
To: Chris Howden
Cc: r-help
Subject: Re: [R] is there a way to update both packages if they occur in 2
libraries?

update.packages() updates all packages in all libraries listed in
.libPaths() unless you specify an explicit library.

It may happen that the version number has not changed and you just want
to reinstall for your upgraded R. In that case use:

update.packages(checkBuilt=TRUE)

Best,
Uwe Ligges

On 20.10.2010 04:07, Chris Howden wrote:
> Hi everyone,
>
>
>
> I've recently added a private library as a way to manage my R libraries.
And
> I did this by simply copying my old library to a new folder and then
linking
> this to R by setting my R_LIBS  environmental variable in .Renviron.
>
>
>
> However I have run into a problem.
>
>
>
> When I update my packages it is not updating those that are current in
the
> base R library.
>
>
>
> This means I can't load packages that are included in base R, since R is
> looking in my private library first and when it finds the package it
tries
> to use it. But it's an outdated version.
>
>
>
> The easiest solution I can think of is to update both libraries, but
when I
> run update.packages(lib.loc="private library location" ask = FALSE,
> checkBuilt=TRUE) it's not updating them.
>
>
>
> So I was wondering if there is a way to update all packages  that occur
in
> all libraries?
>
>
>
>
>
> (Note that I can think of other solutions to my problem, but they are
all
> time consuming and defeats the purpose of why I want a private library
i.e.
> it makes updating R easier since I don't need to copy over the library
> folder each time nor update any environmental variables. So far the best
> alternative I've come up with is to delete all the duplicate base R
> libraries from my private library)
>
>
>
> If anyone is interested the code I used to understand my problem is
below.
>
>
>
>
>
> Thanks everyone
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>> update.packages(lib.loc="C:\\Program Files\\R\\library", ask = FALSE,
> checkBuilt=TRUE)
>
> --- Please select a CRAN mirror for use in this session ---
>
>
>
>> update.packages(ask = FALSE, checkBuilt = TRUE)
>
>
>
> Foreign package won't load
>
>> library(foreign)
>
> Error: package 'foreign' was built before R 2.10.0: please re-install it
>
>
>
>> .libPaths()
>
> [1] "C:\\Program Files\\R\\library"   "C:/PROGRA~1/R/R-212~1.0/library"
>
>
>
>> .libPaths("new")
>
>
>
>> .libPaths()
>
> [1] "C:/PROGRA~1/R/R-212~1.0/library"
>
>
>
> Foreign package will load
>
>> library(foreign)
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Chris Howden
>
> Founding Partner
>
> Tricky Solutions
>
> Tricky Solutions 4 Tricky Problems
>
> Evidence Based Strategic Development, IP development, Data Analysis,
> Modelling, and Training
>
> (mobile) 0410 689 945
>
> (fax / office) (+618) 8952 7878
>
> chris at trickysolutions.com.au
>
> 	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]
>
>
>
>
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