[R] Installing a Package tar.gz in windows

[Duncan Murdoch]

On 28/03/2011 8:04 AM, Luis Felipe Parra wrote:
> Thanks Duncan, I already installed Rtools but I don't know well how to sort
> it out. I tried the command you gave me and got the following error:
>
> >  install.packages("fPortfolioSolver.tar.gz", type="source", repos=NULL)
> Installing package(s) into ‘C:\Users\Hp\Documents/R/win-library/2.12’
> (as ‘lib’ is unspecified)
> Aviso: invalid package 'fPortfolioSolver.tar.gz'
> Error: ERROR: no packages specified
> Mensajes de aviso perdidos
> 1: running command 'C:\PROGRA~1\R\R-212~1.2/bin/i386/R CMD INSTALL -l
> "C:\Users\Hp\Documents/R/win-library/2.12"   "fPortfolioSolver.tar.gz"' had
> status 1
> 2: In install.packages("fPortfolioSolver.tar.gz", type = "source",  :
>    installation of package 'fPortfolioSolver.tar.gz' had non-zero exit status
> >
>
> Do you know what might be going on or  where I can find a manual of how to
> use Rtools? Thank you

The likely problem is that you didn't give the full path to the tar.gz 
file.  If it is not in the working directory, that install.packages 
command will fail.

An easy way to get the path is to use

filename <- file.choose()

which brings up a Windows dialog; go search for the file, and its name 
will be saved in the filename variable.  Then use
install.packages(filename,  type="source", repos=NULL).

Duncan Murdoch

> Felipe Parra
> On Mon, Mar 28, 2011 at 7:52 PM, Duncan Murdoch<murdoch.duncan at gmail.com>wrote:
>
> >  On 28/03/2011 7:30 AM, Luis Felipe Parra wrote:
> >
> >>  Hello I have downloaded the fPortfolioSolver package from R-forge but I
> >>  have
> >>  not been able to install it. I don't know exactly where I should place the
> >>  file and which commands to give R. Could somebody please help me with
> >>  this.
> >>  Thank you
> >>
> >
> >  A .tar.gz file contains the source for the package, so you need to process
> >  it into a binary format to install it.  For simple packages you can do this
> >  in recent versions of R using
> >
> >  install.packages("fPortfolioSolver.tar.gz", type="source", repos=NULL)
> >
> >  but if it contains compiled code, you'll probably need to install tools
> >  first.  See the R Installation and Administration Manual for full details;
> >  the tools are downloadable from<http://www.murdoch-sutherland.com/Rtools>.
> >   Once the tools are properly installed, the above line should work.
> >
> >  The other way to do it is from a CMD window (not in R), running
> >
> >  R CMD INSTALL fPortfolioSolver.tar.gz
> >
> >  This is equivalent to the R command above, but is sometimes easier to set
> >  up, because you can easily modify your PATH variable in the CMD window.
> >
> >  Duncan
> >
>
>
>