[R] Synchronizing R libraries on N machines?

[Iain Gallagher]

Hi Giovanni

Using Ubuntu and MacOSX may not be irrelevant. I use Ubuntu and if I carry out a fresh install (e.g. after a new release - although I've stuck with 10.04 so far) then I always have to mess around, check the web etc to install external packages that R libraries I want to use rely on. 

A good example would be libxml2-dev (which doesn't appear if you use Synaptic and search for xml2 - sigh) for using biomaRt etc etc.

Just a heads up that the external software some R libraries rely on might not be installed on both systems. So installing a package on one system sucessfully doesn't mean you can alway expect it to install without incident on another.

Best

iain

--- On Fri, 26/8/11, Giovanni Petris <gpetris at uark.edu> wrote:

> From: Giovanni Petris <gpetris at uark.edu>
> Subject: Re: [R] Synchronizing R libraries on N machines?
> To: "Rainer M Krug" <r.m.krug at gmail.com>
> Cc: r-help at r-project.org
> Date: Friday, 26 August, 2011, 14:05
> Hi Rainer,
> 
> This certainly helps, but it still requires to do some work
> by hand. I
> was hoping for something more automatic - but so far nobody
> has
> suggested a better approach.
> 
> Thank you,
> Giovanni
> 
> 
> On Thu, 2011-08-25 at 15:43 +0200, Rainer M Krug wrote:
> > 
> > 
> > On Thu, Aug 25, 2011 at 3:25 PM, Giovanni Petris
> <gpetris at uark.edu>
> > wrote:
> >         Hello!
> >         
> >         I am using R on
> two different machines (under Ubuntu and OS X,
> >         but this
> >         is probably
> irrelevant) and I would like to keep the two
> >         installations
> >         'synchronized',
> in particular in terms of installed packages.
> >         For
> >         example, if I
> install package xxx on my Linux machine, I would
> >         like to
> >         find it
> installed also on my Mac, and vice versa.
> >         
> >         I imagine this
> to be a fairly common problem, so I would like
> >         to ask if
> >         anybody has
> suggestions to share about it. Is there a way to
> >         make the
> >         synchronization
> automatic? Painless?
> > 
> > 
> > library()$result[,1] returns the names of the
> installed packages. If
> > you do this on one machine, then compare it with the
> same outpout on
> > the other machine, you can identify the packages which
> are not
> > installed, and you can install those.
> > 
> > 
> > e.g.:
> > x <- letters[1:10]
> > y <- letters[5:20]
> > lx[!(x %in% y)]
> > 
> > 
> > returns 
> > "a" "b" "c" "d"
> > 
> > 
> > which are in x, but not y.
> > 
> > 
> > Hope this helps,
> > 
> > 
> > Rainer
> > 
> > 
> > returns the letters which are in 
> >         
> >         Thank you in
> advance for the suggestions.
> >         
> >         Best,
> >         Giovanni
> >         
> >         
> >         --
> >         
> >         Giovanni
> Petris  <GPetris at uark.edu>
> >         Associate
> Professor
> >         Department of
> Mathematical Sciences
> >         University of
> Arkansas - Fayetteville, AR 72701
> >         Ph: (479)
> 575-6324, 575-8630 (fax)
> >         http://definetti.uark.edu/~gpetris/
> >         
> >     
>    ______________________________________________
> >         R-help at r-project.org
> mailing list
> >         https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> >         PLEASE do read
> the posting guide
> >         http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
> >         and provide
> commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible
> >         code.
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > -- 
> > Rainer M. Krug, PhD (Conservation Ecology, SUN), MSc
> (Conservation
> > Biology, UCT), Dipl. Phys. (Germany)
> > 
> > Centre of Excellence for Invasion Biology
> > Stellenbosch University
> > South Africa
> > 
> > Tel :       +33 - (0)9 53 10
> 27 44
> > Cell:       +33 - (0)6 85 62
> 59 98
> > Fax (F):       +33 - (0)9 58
> 10 27 44
> > 
> > Fax (D):    +49 - (0)3 21 21 25 22 44
> > 
> > email:      Rainer at krugs.de
> > 
> > Skype:      RMkrug
> >
> 
> ______________________________________________
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> PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
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> reproducible code.
>