[R] Ignoring version numbers when installing packages...

[Jonathan Greenberg]

Follow-up:

r-forge seems to have some weirdnesses with version numbers, and since
this is an incubation site, there are occasions where the version
numbers were put in based on whatever the programmer was using at a
time (e.g. other versions were simply not tested, so they erred on the
safe side).  I understand that the internals may have changed, but I
would argue that 9/10 times if something is working on R 2.14.1 but
not 2.14.2 it has nothing to do with some incompatibility, just that
the package hasn't been updated in some time and tested against the
new version.

So, to follow-up, the only way to "override" the version installation
check is to modify the DESCRIPTION file?   There's no flag either in
install.packages() or R CMD INSTALL that will force the installation
even if the version check fails?

--j

On Fri, Mar 30, 2012 at 11:41 AM, Duncan Murdoch
<murdoch.duncan at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 30/03/2012 12:05 PM, Jonathan Greenberg wrote:
>>
>> R-helpers:
>>
>> I'm trying to install a package from r-forge, and I'm wondering if
>> there is a way to force R to install a package, even if the package
>> "requires" a certain version of R (short of modifying the DESCRIPTION
>> file)?  Cheers!
>
>
> You don't give details, so the explanation is uncertain, but the answer is
> clear: don't do that.
>
> If you are trying to install a binary build, don't do that.  It might appear
> to work but fail in messy ways if you use it in the wrong version of R.
>  Some packages link to R internals, and those might have changed.
>
> If you are trying to install from source, but the author said you need a
> particular version of R, then you could modify the DESCRIPTION file:  but
> presumably the author had a reason to ask for a particular version, so don't
> do that either.
>
> Duncan Murdoch
>
>



-- 
Jonathan A. Greenberg, PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Geography
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